A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
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relationshipsmasterpiecenaturefriendSource: Essays: First Series ("Friendship"), Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841
Genuine Emerson. The line appears in the essay 'Friendship' in Essays: First Series (1841): 'A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.' The bare author field 'Emerson' should be expanded to 'Ralph Waldo Emerson' — the other candidate Emersons do not write like this and the essay attribution is well established.