Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit

Posted by @ 10:12 pm on Tuesday 4th January, 2011.

Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit.

The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood. When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet.

The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond.

But none of them owns the landscape.

There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title.


Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Think about that.

Then think about supporting Alan Sloman's "AWake4TheWild" campaign.

What have you got to lose?

A lot more than you'd think.

4 Responses to “Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit”

  1. alan.sloman says:

    Well said, Stef (or should I say Ralph? :smile:) That is absolutely spot on - The land may be owned in little parcels known as estates by 'landowners' but the countryside is ours. Any threat to take that away by erecting turbines to completely screw up the landscape should be fought square inch by square inch until in the end the greedy blighters give in.

    Thanks Stef.

  2. BG! says:

    Most landowners are fine, upstanding and honourable people regardless of class and wealth, and I respect them because they act as custodians of the land and of its natural assets, keeping it in a fit state for other folk and other generations. Sadly, some greedy landowners tend to sanction environmental rape, and/or act as pawns for others with similar dark aims... it's high time that such offences became prohibited by law, with the perpetrators (and their financial backers) chastised accordingly.

  3. Oldmortality says:

    Who possesses this landscape? The man who bought it or I who am possessed by it?

    A man in Assynt, Norman MacCaig

  4. BG! says:

    @Oldmortality -

    False questions, for this landscape is masterless and intractable in any terms that are human.

    Fine words.

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