Four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see - not to eat, not for love, but only gliding.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the purposelessness and beauty of nature as observed in the behavior of the snakes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote depicts a moment of observing four snakes moving freely within a hollow, seemingly without any intention or purpose. This passage serves as a reflection on the essence of nature, suggesting that not all actions require justification or reason; sometimes, existence and movement are valuable in their own right. It invites us to appreciate the natural world and its intrinsic beauty, unencumbered by the need for human-defined objectives.
In practice
During a nature talk, one could use the quote to emphasize the intrinsic value of observing wildlife.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
I swam across the rocks and compared myself favorably with the sars. To swim fishlike, horizontally, was the logical method in a medium eight hundred times denser than air. To halt and hang attached to nothing, no lines or air pipe to the surface, was a dream. At night I had often had visions of flying by extending my arms as wings. Now I flew without wings. (Since that first aqualung flight, I have never had a dream of flying.)
To plant trees is to give body and life to one's dreams of a better world.
One cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.
Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by.
Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God.
I always see gardening as escape, as peace really. If you are angry or troubled, nothing provides the same solace as nurturing the soil.
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