We first reviewed JP's revised homework answers on last week's descriptive essay about "Greed" and its relationship to land. I made suggestions on how to discern tone from diction and provided examples to add to his responses. We then began our study of Emerson's essay on "Nature" as our final descriptive essay in this unit. As "Nature' is part of the literary canon, I provided extensive background information on Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement. In order to comprehend this rather difficult essay I additionally explained Emerson's philosophy that through the natural world Man, Nature, and God can combine and meet in this lifetime within a universal "oversoul." We then identified Emerson's use of the descriptive techniques of personification and metaphor in the opening paragraphs as well as his use of comparison as a method of organization . We last began to address the metaphoric meaning of Emerson's seeing himself as a "transparent eyeball "able to see God and reality clearly . I pointed out the traditional church theology expressed by St Paul who observed that as mortals we only"see through a glass darkly." We will continue next lesson comparing St Paul's observations about Man's relationship with God with the Transcendentalist 's view .