There's a story that goes with this ruin of a mill along side Dingman Creek in Pennsylvania--how it came to be, what happened to its owner and his business. But what difference does that story make to what emerges from this picture? There are literal truths and transcendent truths--subjective, experiential, and creative.
The literal truth is that an Englishman came to what was then the frontier to find his fortune. He built a mill and imported sheep with which to make woolen garments. It was the biggest enterprise for miles around and might have been a big success ... if it wasn't for the wolves.
Emerson saw America as a land unmarked by such stories. One could commune with God's work directly, he believed, to experience the transcendental in nature.
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