Emerson would be appalled to find that we have come to needing a day called Earth Day to remind ourselves of our connection to the earth and nature. To Emerson, “every day is earth day” was not a slogan, but an idea that was part of the very fabric of his being. Nature isn’t just a pretty scene. It is a direct link to divine creativity and the source by which we can learn to establish our own personal direct link to divinity. This is why, in his essay Farming, Emerson has nothing but the utmost respect for the farmer.
Out of all possible labors in humanity’s division of work, farming, and the farmer, is closest to nature. A farmer “represents the necessities.” To be successful his work, and therefore his life, must follow the rhythm of nature. He has great trust invested in him. From his work “the health and power, [both] moral and intellectual, of the cities” comes. A farmer is nothing less than a “representative of Nature.”
Emerson says twice in the essay that “we must not paint the farmer in rose-color.” Yet, he does the very thing by naming the farmer as a representative of nature and by declaring that “the earth works for him,” and geology, chemistry, the air, water, and worms are the farmer’s servants.
Emerson believes that science will help farmers become better farmers. And this is true to a certain point. But what, I wonder, would Emerson think of science in the form of toxic pesticides and fertilizers and genetically engineered grain?
Even nature-loving Emerson is short-sigthed. He can say:
Nature works on a method of all for each and each for all. The strain that is made on one point bears on every arch and foundation of the structure. There is a perfect solidarity.
(Al Gore, eat your heart out) And then a page or two later he is praising the new technology that allows farmers to drain wetlands and swamps and turn them into plowed fields.
“Farming” is a short, strange, but well-meaning essay that I wouldn’t exactly call successful. Still, the essay does serve to remind readers that our admiration for corporate and Wall Street bigwigs is misplaced. While these people appear to be the ones who are most important to our society, Emerson reminds us that even the most powerful depend upon the work of a farmer.
Next week’s Emerson essay, Emerson takes his cue from Hesiod: Works and Days
Yes, it’s the very oddness of Emerson and farming together that’s striking isn’t it? It sounds a little like he might idealise the pastoral, which is probably not the best place from which to write about farming, that most unromantic relationship to nature. Still, the Emersonian approach to the earth would not go amiss to some degree in the modern world.
Your comment about Wall Street sent me looking for a book I read several years ago called The Last Farmer. “The habits of a lifetime of hard work and economy are not easy to give up. Nor are the independence, the small gratifications, and the countless responsibilities that are the traditional farmer’s lot.” The book has much to say about farming, as well as its impact on the individual and the family.
I think often about the connection between Emerson and Thoreau, and how much of the mutual respect was on the basis of how both men saw the earth… farming and otherwise… I think Emerson was very Jeffersonian in this essay.
Nowadays nature is always Darwin, dog-eat-dog stuff, so Emerson kindly has another perspective I think so. Truth the answer is?
The Hood Company
Perfect way to celebrate Earth Day!
Litlove, Emerson and farming are an odd combination and I was quite curious what he could possibly say about it. But you are right, his approach to the earth would not go amiss.
Brad, thanks for mentioning The Last Farmer it sounds good. I’m going to definitely look for it.
JCR, I’ve not read Jefferson before but your comment makes me want to.
You are right Brian, Emerson has a very different perspective, sort of refreshing.
Sure was LK!