One particular point that I thought was interesting in An American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson was where he made the metaphor that “Life is our dictionary.” He then continued to state many more metaphors about basically how in life, we define everything we know through our experiences. The then concluded by saying, “ Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”

What he means here is that learning from books and colleges are sort of a secondary, or back-up, source. All they do is merely copy the things you can experience by yourself in life.

I feel that Emerson also believes that the best way to learn in life is to learn through experiences instead of institution. He states that your experiences are what allow you to know how to live day-to-day. “Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of to-day.” What he is saying here is that life’s experiences give us tools or guidelines on how to live.

I for the most part agree with Emerson because books are written by people who have put their experiences in writing. However, there may be a limit to how much of your experiences you are able to put into writing. Basically, books are reflections of other people’s experiences, but not to their full extent. Only the writer of the book understands the book the best.

So in order to really understand life and nature, you can’t read about other people’s limited experiences, but experience things on your own.