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.

Answer: These lines are quoted from Emerson’s great essay “The American Scholar.” The author shows here the similarity of essence between the old maxim “know thyself” and the modern maxim “Study nature.”

Nature has a great influence on the American Scholar. The influences of nature are of prime importance for him. He studies the natural phenomena and realizes in his soul that there is never a beginning, never an end to the inexplicable continuity of the web of God. Nature is always a circular power, returning to itself. It has an affinity with the scholar’s own spirit. It is without beginning, and without end. It is so entire, so boundless. An inexpérienced mind may first think that everything is individual, that everything has a separate existence, but as such a mind grows in experience it tends to join things. He joins two things first, then thousands, and discovers that all things have the same nature. He sees into the essential unity behind the outward diversity of things. He realizes that there is a law that unifies all the multifarious or kaleidoscopic phenomena of things. As in nature, so in the human mind. The scholar realizes that all human minds are unified by one law. He and all things proceed from the same root which is the soul of his soul. The study of nature will open before him the prospect of an ever-expanding knowledge. Nature is his soul’s counterpart, answering to it part by part. Nature’s laws are the same as his mind’s. The measure of his attainments is nature. His mind becomes full of knowledge to the extent that he understands nature. His mind remains dark to the extent he cannot understand nature. In other words, the old maxim “know thyself,” and the modern one, “Study nature” become, in essence, one.