Mr. Queasy, the fish.

The scholar is a remarkable man. He somehow manages to take the tangled mass of little dots that the heavens are, connect them to each other–the specks so far apart from one another, and so confused and incoherent–and make them into constellations. It is no feat for the faint of heart, this of the scholar.

But someone has to do it, because man sometimes finds delight in looking up at the open night skies with star charts in hand; in looking up and pointing at the stars, in tracing with eager fingers, back and forth through the mess of little dots, the lines so meticulously crafted by the scholar.

If (and only if) he is adept at his scholarly vocations, his constellations will be pretty enough for man to contentedly trace over.

Nature, by definition, refers to any thing or doing of the natural world. From a scientific point of view, the natural world would be considered the rocks, plants, and animals that are found in our environment. To Emerson, nature is an everlasting component of life that is always molding our state of mind, portraying our feelings and affecting our emotions. Similar to what poets, artists, writers and politicians do, naturalists observe changes in their surroundings and try to explain them and put them to use for the rest of the world. In both ancient Greece and Rome, elements of nature have been portrayed as gods. What better admiration than to be considered divine? Even in our modern world, humans are constantly trying to recreate nature. Was the invention of the swimming pool not a more conveniently located imitation of an ocean or lake? Recreation centers hold urban versions of rock climbing and aerobic machines meant to impersonate hiking a mountain. This is a cosmopolitan’s way of connecting with nature between signing business deals and taking coffee breaks.

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