"The American Scholar" By Emerson--Difficult Passage

One passage I found difficult to understand reads as this; "In this view of him, as Man Thinking, the theory of his office is contained. Him nature solicits with all her placid, all her monitory pictures; him the past instructs; him the future invites."  I struggled with this passage mainly due to the language being used.  I was unsure of what Emerson was talking about and to whom he was referring when he mentioned 'her'.  In this case I looked up the definitions of some of the words in order to help understand the passage and my translation of the passage soon turned into; "The view of the American scholar as a thinker portrays that he is self-contained and observant.  He interacts with her calmness and warnings, learning from the past and preparing a future."  I am still continuing to struggle with the reference to a feminine body in this passage because I am unsure if it is a human, an object or a place.