Each author we have been presented with through out this class has given us each a different message, whether through word choice, writing style, or simply what they say. I have to say I like things about both Emerson and Thoreau. Each of them present something totally different, though pieces of it can be found to be quite similar. Emerson's Nature, his Divinity School Address, and his Self Reliance all offer a to-the-point argument that lets the reader see a single side of everything. Each of his pieces links together in offering the same message that the self "cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time" and experiences all that the his own will and power has to offer. His message I find to be true. All factors of life matter, of course, but really the most influential person in your life is your self. You make your decions, you think your thoughts, and you find unique experiences to liven up your life. Emerson's belief that a connection to nature only strengthens this proves also to be true. Originally, our ancestors and our genes all resided in a peaceful nature that was once uninhabited. As time moved forth things changed (obviously) but that small connection to the beauty, the treatury, the uniqueness of nature allows each man and women to regain that strength of youth this is "the healthy attitude of human nature."
Thoreau, though expressing his ideas in a much broader stance, with a completely different writing style, seems to connect to some of Emerson's points. His talk of his home in the country that is a"forever new and unprofaned, part of the universe" correlates beautifully with Emerson's idea that nature offers solitude. Thoreau, in the country, truly seems to find himself. Not only as a poet, who truly owns the land, but just as a human being with the "simplicity, and I may say innocence with Nature." Through this he may "renew thyself completely each day: do it again, and again, forever again." By himself, in the serenity of nature, he too is finding the peace and harmony of what could be. Although Emerson might suggest to translate this knowledge further into the laps of society, Thoreau seems to need nothing more than his home in the woods with a pond an "infinite expecation of the dawn."