What’s Your Choice?

Nature was a source of spiritual solace and artistic inspiration in the mid 19th century From Thomas Cole, “Essay on American Scenery” “ Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of American scenery is its wilderness. It is the most distinctive because in civilized Europe the primitive features of scenery have long since been destroyed or modified – the extensive forests that once overshadowed a great part of it have been felled – rugged mountains have been smoothed, and impetuous rivers turned form their sources to accommodate the tastes and necessities of a dense population – the once tangled wood is now a grassy lawn; the turbulent brook a navigable stream – crags that could not be removed have been crowned with towers, and the rudest valleys tamed by the plough. And to this cultivated state our western world is fast approaching; but nature is still predominant, and there are those who regret that with the improvements to cultivation the sublimity of the wilderness should pass away: for those scenes of solitude which the hand of nature has never been lifted, affect the mind with a more deep toned emotion that aught which the hand of man has touched. Amid them the consequent associations are of God the creator – they are his undefiled works, and the mind is cast into contemplation of eternal things.” From Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” “The noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of God. It is the organ through which the universal spirit speaks to the individual, and strives to lead back the individual to it.“ … We can never see Christianity from the catechism – from the pastures, from a boat in the pond, from amidst the songs of wood-birds, we possibly may.” from James Brooks, “The Knickerbocker” “God has promised us a renowned existence, if we will but deserve it. He speaks this promise in the sublimity of Nature. …The august TEMPLE in which we dwell was built for lofty purposes. Oh! That we may consecrate it to LIBERTY and CONCORD, and be found fit worshippers within its holy wall.” Science is now the source of all knowledge; it acquiesces to NO higher power for guidance, comfort or inspiration in 2012. Atheists, Dawkins, Hawking, Hitchens ( deceased) and Harris have been the leading ‘lights’ for these dark times.