In addition to its healing properties, nature's beauty enhances the grandeur of noble deeds and increases spirituality. A virtuous person is most open to and in harmony with nature's beauty because nature rewards only those people whose thoughts are noble, and who actively perform upstanding deeds. It will bend to a righteous person's will.
The third point Emerson makes concerning beauty is that it is pleasing to the intellect. Continuing his theme of nature's perfect order, he contends that the intellect searches for the perfect order of things, which is an expression of God. This meditational search is followed by an active experiencing of the world and is then succeeded by more intellectual activity. A cycle — or circle — is created by our actively participating in society and then passively thinking about our actions and how we experience the world.
Emerson ends this section on beauty by mentioning Taste and Art. Taste, he says, is the love of beauty; Art is the creation of it. Again, he stresses the unity between nature and humanity: A thing is beautiful in itself only if it is beautiful in unison with nature's whole. In other words, the sum of nature is greater than its parts.
