In this essay, which first appeared in Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Essays: First Series", the essayist explores art and artists as they relate to transcendentalism. Quotes of Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Art is the path of the creator to his work." "Art is a jealous mistress, and, if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider." "Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun."