The preceding chapters have investigated the complexity of Emerson's relationship to Coleridge's thought in the realms of philosophy, literature, and theology. The essay Nature marked the zenith of Emerson's assimilative relationship to Coleridge. A close reading of the essay yields dozens of direct and indirect references to Coleridge, but his true role was far greater than a patchwork of allusions. Rather, Nature epitomized the way in which Emerson was both deeply indebted to Coleridge and yet applied his ideas to create a highly original and ground-breaking work. In short, Nature posed a question, “To what end is nature?” and used Coleridge's definitions, distinctions, and intellectual method to answer it.

Nature was a seminal work for Emerson and Transatlantic Transcendentalism. Carlyle immediately recognized its importance, praising it in a letter to Emerson as “the Foundation and Ground-plan on which you may build whatsoever of great and true has been given you to build.” The essay's full relevance can only be appreciated in a transatlantic context: Emerson not only created a foundational text for American Romanticism, but in many ways he completed a project that other Romantics had only fragmentarily expounded: as Gravil commented, “Emerson articulated in prose as no English Romantic successfully did, the high Romantic argument concerning nature. Not even Coleridge came close to crafting a satisfactory, portable and unitary exposition of what he and his contemporaries meant by nature – or even recognizing that such an exposition was needed.”