In "Idealism" and "Spirit," Emerson takes a philosophical leap in asking whether nature exists separately, or whether it is only an image created in man's mind by God. Although he says that the answer cannot be known, and that it makes no difference in man's use of nature, he suggests that idealism is preferable to viewing nature as concrete reality because it constitutes "that view which is most desirable to the mind." Emerson supports the ideal theory by pointing to the ways in which poetry, philosophy, science, religion, and ethics subordinate matter to higher truth. But he also acknowledges that idealism is hard to accept from the commonsensical point of view — the view of those who trust in rationality over intuition. "The broker, the wheelwright, the carpenter, the toll-man, are much displeased at the intimation," he writes at the beginning of "Idealism." Correspondence provides a bridge between matter and spirit. In denying the actual existence of matter, idealism goes much farther.
In various ways in Nature, Emerson appears to suggest that the natural world does, in fact, exist separately from spirit. For instance, he carefully distinguishes between man's inner qualities and his physical existence, between the "ME" and the "NOT ME," which includes one's own body. His progressive argument is marred by this seeming contradiction, and by his hesitancy to state outright that nature is an ideal, even while he discusses it as such. He only goes so far as to say that idealism offers a satisfactory way of looking at nature. But he does not want to sidetrack his reader by attempting to prove that which cannot be proven.
Emerson concludes the essay by asking his readers to open themselves to spiritual reality by trusting in intuitive reason. He writes,
. . . there are far more excellent qualities in the student than preciseness and infallibility; . . . a guess is often more fruitful than an indisputable affirmation, and . . . a dream may let us deeper into the secret of nature than a hundred concerted experiments.
Through receptivity to intuition, we may rise above narrow common sense and transcend preoccupation with material fact per se.
