Ralph Waldo Emerson Print

"Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

A quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s thoughtful meditation on nature, “Circles.” Emerson explores circles as a metaphor for perception and experience; every new discovery radiates outward from the one before, on and on, without end.

He begins, “The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary picture is repeated without end.” In other words, the first circle is the self, the second is observation, the third is the edge of what we can see. As we explore and understand the world, we begin to map new territory from which we can view new horizons in every direction.

In our illustration, we took inspiration from a geometric shape at the edge of humankind’s mathematical horizon, the E8 lattice. “E8” is an interrelated 248-dimensional symmetrical object that has been described by some physicists as “the key to the theory of everything.”

Don't panic, we don’t understand it either!  But it sure is beautiful. Its mandala-like structure suggests the interconnectedness of everything, each connection a possibility for greater understanding, and each horizon giving way to potential discovery.

We left the outer reaches dark to leave room for the future.