Ralph Waldo Emerson
American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) lead Transcendentalism in the early nineteenth century and greatly influenced the later New Thought movement. Summing up his work, Emerson said that his primary principle was "the infinitude of the private man", and advised to "make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." His First Series collects together the following 12 essays: History, Self-Reliance,
...4) Nature
"The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundbreaking work Nature, published a year earlier, in which he established a new way for America's fledgling society to regard the world. Sixty years after declaring independence,
..."The Transcendentalist" is a lecture and essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is one of the essays he wrote while establishing the doctrine of American Transcendentalism. The lecture was read at the Masonic Temple in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1842.
The work begins by contrasting materialists and idealists. Emerson laments the absence of "old idealists." He goes on to outline the fundamental beliefs and characteristics
...11) Essays
13) Literary Ethics
An Oration delivered before the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, July 24, 1838.
Read at the Masonic Temple, Boston, December 2, 1841
Excerpt:
"The times, as we say -- or the present aspects of our social state, theral Science, Agriculture, Art, Trade, Letters, have their root in an invisible spiritual reality. To appear in these aspects, they must first exist, or have some necessary foundation. Beside all the small reasons we assign, there is a great reason for the existence of every extant fact; a reason
...15) The Conservative
A Lecture delivered at the Masonic Temple, Boston, December 9, 1841
Excerpt:
"The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made. This quarrel is the subject of civil history. The conservative party established the reverend hierarchies and monarchies of the most ancient world. The battle of patrician
...An Oration delivered before the Society of the Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, August 11, 1841
Excerpt:
"Let us exchange congratulations on the enjoyments and the pros literary anniversary. The land we live in has no interest so dear, if it knew its want, as the fit consecration of days of reason and thought. Where there is no vision, the people perish. The scholars are the priests of that thought which establishes
...17) Man The Reformer
A Lecture read before the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library Association, Boston, January 25, 1841
Excerpt:
"Mr. President, and Gentlemen,
I wish to offer to your consideration some thoughts on the particular and general relations of man as a reformer. I shall assume that the aim of each young man in this association is the very highest that belongs to a rational mind. Let it be granted, that our life, as we
...A personal testament to the life and times of one of America's great naturalists and literary figures - less a biography than an essay in defense of Thoreau by one of his closest friends. This moving, sensitive and charmingly written remembrance offers valuable insights into the life of a remarkable man. (From Google Books)