Emerson now discusses the differences between the poet, the philosopher, and the scientist. The poet is concerned with beauty, the philosopher with truth. Both are engaged in spiritualizing the physical world using mental processes, but the philosopher is more likely to be trapped in his thoughts, discarding nature's objects from which his ideas were originally gained. In contrast, scientists, and especially mathematicians, rely on abstract reasoning rather than physical observation. Philosophers dismiss nature's objects "like an outcast corpse" once they are through using them, and scientists fail even to begin with an object as the starting point for their work. The theme of accessibility is present in this section when Emerson notes that although great ideas are accessible to few men and women, all persons are capable of training themselves in the art of critical thinking.
The last point that Emerson considers in this section about idealism is the relationship of ethics and religion to nature. He finds that these two disciplines relegate nature to an inferior position in a scheme of values that regards spiritual truth as the only valid truth. Religion urges the individual to deplore the physical world and distrust the body, and both ethics and religion "put nature under foot." Recommending that the individual focus on nature's totality, Emerson cautions against excessively detailed inquiries into ethics and religion.
Overall, Emerson asserts the power and importance of ideas. Again using a circle to symbolize the interrelated universe of people and nature, he emphasizes that the universal ideas grounding us in this world are products of a Supreme Being. A person who contemplates universal ideas gains new heights of understanding and, according to transcendental philosophy, transcends time and space to attain a metaphysical consciousness and immortality.
