Sunday, November 14, 2010

What do you think about these quotes from Francis Bacon and Ralf Waldo Emerson on Nature?

Quotes from 'On Gardens' by Francis Bacon:



';God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; without which, buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks ...';



';And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, that to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air';



';Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn';



Quote from 'Nature' by Ralph Waldo Emerson



';The solitary places [in Nature] do not seem quite so lonely. At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity that shames our religions; and reality which discredits our heroes ... The tempered light of the woods is like a perpectual morning, and is stimulating and heroic ... the incommunicable trees begin to persuade us to live with them, and quit our life of solemn trifles ... How easily we might walk onward into the opening landscape, absorbed by new pictures, and by thoughts fast succeeding each other, until by degrees the recollection of home was crowded out of the mind, all memory obliterated by the tyranny of the present, and we were led by triumph by nature ... These enchantments are medicinal, they sober and heal us. We come to our own [in Nature], and make friends with matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools would persuade us to despise. We can never part with it; the mind loves its old home ... Ever an old friend ... [Nature] ... comes in this honest face, and takes grave liberty with us, and shames us out of our nonsense. Cities give not the human senses room enough.';What do you think about these quotes from Francis Bacon and Ralf Waldo Emerson on Nature?
Almost seems as if these articulate gentleman are saying that Nature is of a healing sort, whereas most of the ills we suffer are due to an addiction to living in cities.What do you think about these quotes from Francis Bacon and Ralf Waldo Emerson on Nature?
Good.
Bacon and Ralf are deluded.
Getting back to nature can be an illuminating adventure.

No comments:

Post a Comment