There is an Indian fable of three beings who drank from a river: one was a god, and he drank ambrosia; one was a man, and he drank water; and one was a demon, and he drank filth. What you get is a function of your own consciousness.
Emerson is a person who lives instinctively on ambrosia - and leaves everything indigestible on his plate.
I know that I am mortal and the creature of a day; but when I search out the massed wheeling circles of the stars, my feet no longer touch the earth, but, side by side with Zeus himself, I take my fill of ambrosia, the food of the gods.
Such a man as instinctively feeds on pure ambrosia and leaves alone the indigestible in things.