“I announce this world is so magnificent that I can hardly believe it exists,” Emerson writes, “whether it results in disbelief in its own creation or feelings of awe, wonder, or amazement.” But what is it about nature and the things that make it up that makes us believe or declare that they are beautiful, even though we don't want to?

Most of the time, it seems to me, we find these objects to be beautiful not because of something else they might offer us – a piece of furniture, for example, or a ‘delicacy' to be eaten – but because of the way their forms hit us upon first observation. Indeed, one might argue that one of the foundations for valuing nature is the perception of beauty – nature is important because it is beautiful.

Emerson seems to believe that natural beauty is not restricted to some areas of the world at the expense of others. Every landscape, he writes, is governed by "the imperative of being beautiful," and "beauty breaks in everywhere."

The city dwellers believe that the countryside is only pleasant for half of the year.Each hour of the year has its own beauty for the attentive eye, and in the same field it beholds an image that has never been seen before, and will never be seen again.

And when the river's water is frozen and it seems to be still and unchanging for a time, a near observer of nature sees a river in constant motion. Nature will show its beauty to the eye who knows how to look for it in any location and at any time. In the words of this journal entry, we can hear Emerson wrangle with himself on this very point

Nature seemed to say, "Well, do not these suffice?" when I went out into the dark at night and saw a glimmering star and heard a frog. This is a new scene, a new adventure. Consider it, Emerson, and do not, as the rest of the world does, yearn for thunders, multitudes, and vast landscapes, the sea or Niagara Falls.

So, if we agree that nature, or aspects of it, are beautiful, we might wonder why we have such an emotional response to it. Nature is amazing, according to Emerson, because it is alive, moving, and reproducing. We see growth and development of living things in nature, as opposed to the stagnant or decaying condition of the vast majority of man-made objects. “We ascribe beauty to that which...has no superfluous parts; which precisely answers its end; which stands connected to all things,” he writes. Natural systems, he claims, are devoid of superfluities, an assertion that has been verified by biological progress in general.