Ralph Waldo Emerson

What was Emerson experiences that made him “glad to the brink of fear”?

Answer #1

Ah, it’s from one of his best-loved essays, ‘On Nature’.

Emerson writes: ‘Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child.’

It’s a wonderful essay!

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