I think you can extrapolate a lot of metaphors from
"nurse." Two that I believe Emerson was going for are "to nurture" and "provide
sustenance or entice." Emerson may have been describing schools mostly for boys with
male teachers, so he could be expressing the need for a feminine touch to teaching. In
any case, I think this line implies Emerson's plea for the need of a motherly affection
between teacher and student.
"Nursing" connotes different
things: nursing back to health, providing sustenance (breast feeding) and generally
taking care of someone. "Genius" is, in this context more along the lines of creativity
and potential. So, nursing this genius is to give it care, to feed it and; here's one
that Emerson may or may not have implied: to entice. First, to entice in the motherly
way as a baby needs and craves milk; simply, to entice with food which is necessary for
life and, metaphorically, necessary to promote
creativity.
In the context of the historically
gender-stereotype of nurses being female and the nurse-patient relationship, this
additional metaphor of enticing seems to have a slight sexual innuendo; not necessarily
outright sexual, but within the discourse of enticing. One is enticed by food, sex,
comfort, and encouragement. So the idea of enticement in general is simply a metaphor
for encouraging, promoting, feeding and caring for that "genius." The teacher must not
simply feed the student knowledge; but must entice the student; nurse his creativity.
And thereby, with this motherly or historically feminine aspect to the more
traditionally "manly" disciplinarian approach where the student is forced to learn the
classics, the student is enticed, encouraged and feels a sense of affection. Thereby,
the college has a feel that is more like "home."
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