"Experience" and Melancholia

"Life is a train of moods like a string of beads"

       Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about the mystery of the experience or perception of Nature, rather than the mystery of Nature in "Experience". Although humans don't understand Nature, it doesn't mean that Nature is mysterious; instead, man's perception is limited. "Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue,and each shows only what lies in its focus" (Emerson 570). In other words, man is not limited to only see one thing, but he is limited to see whatever the focus is of his mood of perception. An example he gives is self-inflicted suffering for a hope of reality and truth. Through this mood, man learns one thing and finds one reality: that grief is shallow and it leads a person to nothingness except death if life-long. Then as man moves out of this stage, he approaches the next bead on the string or next mood-car on the train. The experience will teach him something new but won't be a perception/view of all colors (knowledge).

       Emerson describes moods "in which we court suffering, in the hope that here, at least, we shall find reality, sharp peaks and edges of truth" (Emerson 569). He writes that this mood is painted on by a person, meaning that it isn't his true feelings. It isn't true but superficial. The mood he describes is a close description of melancholia, which Edgar Allen Poe incorporates in "The Raven". In the poem, the man burdens himself with continuous grief because he feels guilty for falling asleep while trying to grieve the loss of his lady, Lenore. He brings the suffering upon himself, as Emerson describes in "Experience" in order to to find the reality of what he thinks should occur when someone loses his love, even though it teaches him nothing.

What does Emerson mean by writing, "all our days are so unprofitable while they pass" on page 568?