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Read the passage below, looking for evidence of Emerson's main point.

"The production of a work of art throws a light upon the mystery of humanity. A work of art is an abstract or epitome of the world. It is the result or expression of nature, in miniature. For, although the works of nature are innumerable and all different, the result or the expression of them all is similar and single. Nature is a sea of forms radically alike and even unique. A leaf, a sun-beam, a landscape, the ocean,
make an analogous impression on the mind. What is common to them all, -- that perfectness and harmony, is beauty. The standard of beauty is the entire circuit of natural forms, -- the totality of nature....Nothing is quite beautiful alone: nothing but is beautiful in the whole. A single object is only so far beautiful as it suggests this universal grace. The poet, the painter, the sculptor, the musician, the
architect, seek each to concentrate this radiance of the world on one point, and each in his several work to satisfy the love of beauty which stimulates him to produce....Thus in art, does nature work through the will of a man filled with the beauty of her first works."
What does Emerson mean when he says that "Nothing is quite beautiful alone"?
A. A single object of beauty can become boring to us.
B. "Nothing" is as beautiful as "something."
C. Nothing is beautiful if it seems lonely.
D. The world as a whole defines our standards of beauty.

User VsfDawg
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2 Answers

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Answer: D. because throughout the whole passage the author emphasizes "Beautiful in the whole"

User Nuvolari
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7 votes

Answer:

d. The world as a whole defines our standards of beauty.

Step-by-step explanation:

I just took the test, but also one person is entitled to say something is beautiful but that is that one persons opinion. However is the entire room agrees that it is beautiful, then who can question it. Keep that in mind as you read.

User Afua
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