How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Good God!" exclaimed St. Aubert, "you surely will not destroy that noble chestnut, which has flourished for centuries, the glory of the estate!" (1.1.13)
St. Aubert doesn't want Quesnel to go all George Washington on his tree because his identity is completely wrapped up in its existence. St. Aubert is nothing without this symbol of the natural world.
Quote #2
It was a still and beautiful night, the sky was unobscured by any cloud, and scarce a leaf of the woods trembled in the air. (1.6.42)
Em gets all spiritual when contemplating nature because she can't handle how grand it all is. Poetry is one way she can express All the Feelings about something totally incomprehensible.
Quote #3
"How delightful," said she, "to live amidst the coral bowers and crystal caverns of the ocean, with my sister nymphs, and listen to the sounding waters above, and to the soft shells of the tritons!" (2.2.27)
Hold up, so Em has sister nymphs now? In times like these, it really seems like Em thinks of herself as a woodland spirit. She has a fantastic imagination, that's for sure.