How does Emerson show a similarity between the two precepts “know thyself”, and “study nature”?

Or, How does Emerson come to the conclusion that the old precept “know thyself” and the modern precept “study nature”, become at last one maxim?”

Or, How does Emerson show a similarity between the two precepts “know thyself”, and “study nature”?

Answer: Every scholar is expected to discover a similarity between his own self, and nature. His self and nature proceed from the same source-the soul of soul, so they have similarities. Nature is an inexplicable continuity of the web of God. It is a circular power always returning to itself. It has no beginning, no end. It is entire, boundless. The scholar’s own spirit or soul is like nature. It is circular, boundless, and entire. Things move in a circular order, perpetually returning to themselves.

The scholar realizes that his mind and outside Nature are intimately connected to each other so that what is present in Nature is also present in the human mind. So, a scholar discovers so much of his own soul or spirit as he discovers Nature. His knowledge of Nature is the greatest source of his knowledge, knowledge of the world, and the knowledge of his own self. He studies Nature, and at first, as an inexperienced mind, thinks that all things have individual entities. He learns to join two things, then many, and then thousands, and discovers one nature running through all things. The chemist finds proportions and intelligible methods throughout matter; and science is the finding out of the analogy and identity, in the most remote parts.

The scholar realizes that Nature is the material counterpart of his immaterial self. Nature answers to him part for part, that is, the part of Nature that the scholar discovers through his study of Nature also exists in his own mind. Nature becomes the measure of its own attainments. The extent that he discovers Nature through his study of it becomes equivalent to the extent that he discovers of his own himself. The more he knows of Nature, the more he knows of himself. The extent of nature that he cannot discover remains the undiscovered territory of his own mind. The old precept “know thyself” was based on abstract thinking, meditation, and analysis of the abstract working of the soul. But the modern precept “study nature” is based on the study of the material phenomena of Nature. But the objective of both the processes is the same-the discovery of one’s self.

So the old and the new precepts ultimately merge. To quote Emerson, “… What is nature to him? There is never a beginning, there is never an end, to the inexplicable continuity of this web of God, but always circular power returning to itself. Therein, it resembles his own spirit whose beginning, whose ending, he never can find-so entire, so boundless.” The scholar observes Nature’s splendors shine, system on the system, shooting like rays, upward, downward, without the center, without circumference in the mass and in the particle. Nature hastens to render an account of herself to the mind. Classification begins. To the young mind, everything is individual and stands by itself. By and by, it finds how to join two things and see in them one nature; then three, then three thousand; and so tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running underground whereby contrary and remote things cohere and flower out from one stem.

It presently learns that since the dawn of history there has been a constant accumulation and classifying of facts. But what is classification but the perceiving that these objects are not chaotic, and are not foreign, but have a law which is also a law of the human mind? The astronomer discovers that geometry, a pure abstraction of the human mind, is the measure of planetary motion. … yet when this spiritual light shall have revealed the law of more earthly natures when he has learned to worship the soul and to see that the natural philosophy that now is, is only the first gropings of its gigantic hand he shall look forward to an ever-expanding knowledge as to a becoming creator. He shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to it part for part … Nature then becomes to him the measure of his attainments. So much of nature as he is ignorant of, so much of his own mind does he not yet possess. And, in fine, the ancient precept, “know thyself” and the modern precept, “study nature” become at last one maxim.”

For ordinary people, the old adage “know thyself’ meant a matter of soul, and soul is a very mysterious entity for them. So a man would naturally avoid the effort necessary for realizing the soul. But Emerson has brought it within the reach of ordinary people, ordinary scientists, and scholars by showing that in order to realize one’s self, one has to study Nature. By studying Nature he would realize that there is a great similarity between nature and the human mind and the extent of the realization of his own soul would depend upon the extent of the discovery of the laws of Nature. So, actually, the spiritualistic trend of the old maxim “know thyself” has been given a material tinge. Consequently, from above the reach of the ordinary people, the whole matter has been brought within the reach of ordinary men, ordinary scientists, and scholars. From the point of view of the author, Emerson, the two maxims. — “know thyself”, and “study nature’ – ultimately mean the same thing, and as such, it is practicable for a scholar of the modern time.