Some of Emerson's best social philosophy may be found in the essay, _Considerations by the Way_, published in the volume called _The Conduct of Life_. His _English Traits_ records in a vigorous, interesting, common-sense way his impressions from his travels in the mother country. The English find in this volume some famous sentences, which they love to quote, such as,-- "That which lures a solitary American in the woods with the wish to see England, is the moral peculiarity of the Saxon race,--its commanding sense of right and wrong,--the love and devotion to that,--this is the imperial trait which arms them with the sceptre of the globe." POETRY.--Emerson's verse is noteworthy for its exposition (1) of nature and (2) of his transcendental philosophy. He produced a comparatively small amount of poetry, but much more than he is popularly supposed to have written. Some of his verse is of a high degree of excellence; in fact, his nature poetry deserves to be ranked with the best that America has produced. Like Bryant, Emerson loves the forest. He says:-- "I go to the god of the wood To fetch his word to men." In _The Poet_, we see how great he thought the poet's debt to communion with nature:-- "The gods talk in the breath of the woods, They talk in the shaken pine, And fill the long reach of the old seashore With dialogue divine; And the poet who overhears Some random word they say Is the fated man of men Whom the ages must obey." Hawthorne saw Emerson one August day, wandering in Sleepy Hollow near Concord, and wrote, "He appeared to have had a pleasant time; for he said there were Muses in the woods to-day and whispers to be heard in the breezes." When Emerson was twenty-four years old, he wrote the following lines, which show the new feeling of mystic companionship with nature:-- "These trees and stones are audible to me, These idle flowers, that tremble in the wind, I understand their faery syllables." His verses make us feel how nature enriches human life, increases its joys, and lessens its sorrows. What modern lover of nature has voiced a more heartfelt, unaffected appreciation of her ministrations than may be found in these lines from Emerson's _Musketaquid_?-- "All my hurts My garden spade can heal. A woodland walk, A quest of river grapes, a mocking thrush, A wild rose or rock-loving columbine, Salve my worst wounds." From reading his best nature poem, _Woodnotes_, first published in The Dial, an appreciative person may find it easy to become "Lover of all things alive, Wonderer at all he meets," to feel that in the presence of nature, every day is the best day of the year, and possibly even to sing with Emerson of any spring or summer day:--