This perhaps the only correct assessment of Emerson ever made by anyone. Written when Emerson and Margaret Fuller began The Dial, it was his second submission, rejected by Fuller, and later, discovered in Emerson's papers. The brilliance of form and light define consciousness of the world around us, and stimulate understanding, and provoke reasoning. A photographic Mind while of a slightly different access to subject and object, by passage through light, recognizes the form of definition and records the image with film. The eyes know, as the mind knows, and if not by ready examination, by intuition.
Vision then is highly interpretative, and dependent upon the unfolding of knowledge.
Emerson worked by thinking at writing. Matters of inspiration only occur at relative moments of knowledge, understanding, and the perspective of reasoning. He read and was influenced by many others who wrote about understanding life. Emerson always sought inspiration. He minded his music.