Full Snow Moon, January 23, 2008

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College , Cambridge, Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838

But when the mind opens,
and reveals the laws which traverse the universe,
and make things what they are,
then shrinks the great world at once
into a mere illustration
and fable of this mind.
What am I?
What is this?
asks the human spirit with a curiosity new-kindled,
but never to be quenched.
Behold these outrunning laws,
which our imperfect apprehension can see tend this way and that,
but not come full circle.
Behold these infinite relations,
so like, so unlike;
many, yet one.
I would study,
I would know,
I would admire forever.