Thomas Cole: Essay on American Scenery

How does Cole argue that we can do this "cultivation?" He writes that "the capacity for [nature] enjoyment increases with the knowledge of the true means of obtaining it." And what are those "true means"?

Arguably, that is what this essay as a whole is about. In the pages that follow Thomas Cole sets before us, in words, a celebration of American landscape.

What is the date of this essay?

Cole originally delivered this in a speech in 1835. The following year the essay was published in the American Monthly Magazine.

In addition to the wilderness, where else can you see the beauty of nature if you look with a "loving eye"?

Cole says you can experience the beauty of nature in the city if you look with "loving eyes." "...even in the city the deep blue sky and the drifting clouds appeal..."

What is the value of "rural nature"?

Cole writes that rural nature, like poetry and painting, is "full of the same quickening spirit--it is, in fact, the exhaustless mine from which the poet and the painter have brought such wondrous treasures-- an unfailing fountain of intellectual enjoyment, where all may drink, and be awakened to a deeper feeling of the works of genius, and a keener perception of the beauty of our existence."

What is Cole's favorite season and why?

From his descriptions of the colors and in many of his paintings, autumn is Cole's favorite season. He describes the view on a fall day, "then every hill and dale is riant in the luxury of color--every hue is there, from the liveliest green to deepest purple from the most golden yellow to the intensest crimson."

You can almost hear Cole's frustration when he addresses the argument that American scenery is inferior because it lacks the "vestiges of antiquity" - the ancient buildings and ruins - that are associated with European landscapes. What does he say about these arguments?

He writes: "But from whom do these opinions come? From those who have read of European scenery, of Grecian mountains, and Italian skies, and never troubled themselves to look at their own; and from those travelled ones whose eyes were never opened to the beauties of nature until they beheld foreign lands, and when those lands faded from the sight were again closed and forever; disdaining to destroy their trans-atlantic impressions by the observation of the less fashionable and unfamed American scenery. Let such persons shut themselves up in their narrow shell of prejudice--I hope they are few,--and the community increasing in intelligence, will know better how to appreciate the treasures of their own country." [Oh, snap!]

Cole refers to people who have forgotten their "glorious heritage." What does he mean by glorious heritage?

He's referring to nature, the wilderness -- the whole of the American landscape. He describes this heritage for those who "can see and feel" as "the loveliness of verdant fields, the sublimity of lofty mountains" and "the varied magnificence of the sky."

According to Cole, what do Elijah, St. John, and the Anchorites have in common?

He's saying that they appreciate wilderness (remember AYP?). He states that they "found pleasure and consolation in the beauty of the rural earth" and that they "retired into the solitudes of nature to wait the inspiration of heaven."

Cole identifies a lack of "immortal verse" about the American landscape as the cause for people of his day to disregard it as flawed, as having "a grand defect." The landscapes of Europe, In contrast, were glorified through its rich literature and art and from its long history (compared to the young, America). Within decades of Cole's essay, who are the thinkers, writers, and artists that provide us today with the immortal verse about the American landscape? Hint: You may have read something by these people.

Henry David Thoreau and John Muir for sure. Who else?

Cole concludes with a hope for the future. What does he hope for and "feebly" urge?

His hope for the future is that "the importance of cultivating a taste for scenery will not be forgotten" reminding the reader that "Nature has spread for us a rich and delightful banquet." He asks, "Shall we turn from it?" And warns us that "the wall that shuts us out of the garden is our own ignorance and folly."

He begins by addressing a kind of "ignorance or prejudice" that belittles American scenery. What is the character of this attitude?

In the eyes of such folks American scenery is "rude without picturesqueness, and monotonous without sublimity."

Cole argues that although worldly concerns distract us from nature appreciation there is, none the less in us an "oasis" of nature appreciation "that yet remains to us." Then Cole asks how can we "preserve the germs of a future and purer system." (By "system" here he means a way to encourage the contemplation of nature.)

Our friend John Muir would write later of a "natural beauty hunger" in human beings. Somewhat in contrast, Thomas Cole claims that we need to work at what Muir describes as natural. Cole writes: "The contemplation of scenery can be so abundant a source of delight and improvement, a taste for it is certainly worthy of particular cultivation."

Cole describes characteristics that make many people "short lived, short sighted" or blind to nature. What are these characteristics?

People who are "all consumed in the low pursuits of avarice, or the gaudy frivolities of fashion, unobservant of nature's loveliness, are unconscious of the harmony of creation." He adds those who "wander 'loose about;'" and this causes them to "nothing see." So how does Cole say they see their surroundings? "Heaven's roof to them Is but a painted ceiling hung with lamps; No more--that lights them to their purposes..."

Of the three water subsets in the essay, why are lakes the most beautiful?

The lakes are beautiful because of the purity and transparency of the water -- the "reflections of surrounding objects, trees, mountains, sky, are most perfect in the clearest water; and the most perfect is the most beautiful."

What mountains in America are Cole's perfect example of the union of "the picturesque, the sublime, and the magnificent?"

The mountains in New Hampshire. the Mountains Cole mentions are all in the East. They are The Alleghanies, the Catskills, and the White Mountains in New Hampshire which have been called the "Switzerland of the United States." The great mountains of the west were hardly known back east at this time.

Cole argues that certain behaviors and desires tend to block our "taste" for scenery - our ability to "contemplate" it fully. What are these impediments?

The obstacle for many folks to having a mature taste for scenery is "a meager utilitarianism [that is] ready to absorb every feeling and sentiment." Cole worries that this search for practical "improvement" can be harmful, making him fear that "the bright and tender flowers of the imagination shall all be crushed beneath its iron tramp."

In what ways did Europe tame the land?

The primitive land was destroyed and modified -- "the extensive forests... have been felled--rugged mountains have been smoothed, and impetuous rivers turned from their courses to accommodate the tastes and necessities of a dense population--the once tangled wood is now a grassy lawn; the turbulent brook a navigable stream--crags that could not be removed have been crowned with towers, and the rudest valleys tamed by the plough."

What is the soul of scenery?

The sky.

For Cole, what feature in nature is "the voice of the landscape?"

The waterfall

What does Cole say is the value of untamed wilderness?

They are places of solitude that "affect the mind with a more deep toned emotion than aught which the hand of man has touched. Amid them the consequent associations are of God the creator--they are his undefiled works, and the mind is cast into the contemplation of eternal things."

Cole uses the word sublime in its verb form (with an object) several times in this essay. Define sublime in its verb from:

To make higher, nobler, or purer.

According to Cole, what is the most expressive feature of landscape?

Water

Cole writes that America has no tower ruins or temple but instead has "freedom's offspring" that are the "spirits of the scene." What are they?

peace, security, and happiness

"Although an enlightened and increasing people have broken in upon the solitude, and with activity and power wrought changes that seem magical, yet the most distinctive, and perhaps the most impressive, characteristic of American scenery is its ______________________."

wildness

Cole admits that Europe has this quality: Over it "time and genius" have suspended an "imperishable halo." Then he continues by pointing out the singular distinction of American scenery. What is this "distinction"?

"I would have it remembered that nature hashed over this land beauty and magnificence, and although the character of its scenery may differ from the old world's, yet inferiority must not therefore be inferred; for though American scenery is destitute of many of those circumstances that give value to the European, still it has features, and glorious ones, unknown to Europe."

According to Cole, what is the value of poetry and painting?

"Poetry and Painting sublime and purify thought, by grasping the past, the present, and the future-- they give the mind a foretaste of its immortality, and thus prepare it for performing an exalted part amid the realities of life."

The sentiment noted on the previous card was captured in a famous three-word slogan during the late nineteenth century. What were those words?

"See America First!"

How does Cole compare the Hudson in the United States to the Rhine in Europe?

"The Rhine has its castled crags, its vine-clad hills, and ancient villages; the Hudson has its wooded mountains, its rugged precipices, its green undulating shores--a natural majesty, and an unbounded capacity for improvement by art."

Forest occupies the largest space in the American landscape. The forests contain trees. Cole writes that these trees are like men. How so?

"Trees are like men, differing widely in character; in sheltered spots, or under the influence of culture, they show few contrasting points; peculiarities are pruned and trained away, until there is a general resemblance. But in exposed situations, wild and uncultivated, battling with the elements and with one another for the possession of a morsel of soil, or a favoring rock to which they may cling--they exhibit striking peculiarities, and sometimes grand originality."

What else does Cole fear?

1) "The sway of fashion....poisoning the healthful streams of true refinement." 2) "a senseless idolatry of their own follies" 3) "The spirit of our society is to contrive, but not to enjoy - toiling to produce more toil - accumulating in order to aggrandize." (BTW, In Walden Henry David Thoreau made the same point with his statement, "The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.")

During the next few pages of Thomas Cole's "American Scenery," he nurtures the "contemplation" of American Scenery by celebrating five general types of beauty in the American landscape. For one of the five, he describes three subcategories. What are the five general types, and what are the three subcategories for one of these?

1) Wildness, 2) Mountains, 3) Water, 4) Forests, and 5) Sky. Number 3, Water is sub-divided into lakes, waterfalls, and rivers.