Emerson's "American Scholar" 10/17/10

        I'm oging to do kind of a mixture of a question/opinion blog. So opinion first. I think I've got the first half of this thing down; I'm good with pretty much everything that we talked about in class. The influences are good, and I understand the matter of action being both an influence and a responsibility pretty well. So that just leaves the end of he speech. I find it to be, if I understand it correctly, the most interesting part of the speech.
        Emerson says, "Man is surprised to find that things near are not less beautiful and wondrous than things remote. The near explains the far." This idea is a bit profound. I think Emerson is saying "look dimwits, you need to openyour eyes and realize that what you need to be working on is right in front of your face. Stop overthinking things. You can see your destiny right on your doorstep." Perhaps a bit more eloquently from his lips than mine of course, but that's the general idea. i think this is the first time that he has actually addressed the scholar on what they should be doing, aside from the responsibilities of course. Now, at the end of his speech, Emerson makes his point known.
        There is another quote that I find interesting though that I don't quite understand. "Is it so bad then? Sight is the last thing to be pitied. Would we be blind? Do we fear lest we should outsee nature and God, and drink truth dry?" I seems a significant passage, but I would appreciate it if we could go over it in class tomorrow.