25 chapters
10 hour read
Selected Chapters
25 chapters
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Merrill's English Texts This series of books will include in complete editions those masterpieces of English Literature that are best adapted for the use of schools and colleges. The editors of the several volumes will be chosen for their special qualifications in connection with the texts to be issued under their individual supervision, but familiarity with the practical needs of the classroom, no less than sound scholarship, will characterize the editing of every book in the series. In connect
49 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
LIFE OF EMERSON
LIFE OF EMERSON
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, May 25, 1803. He was descended from a long line of New England ministers, men of refinement and education. As a school-boy he was quiet and retiring, reading a great deal, but not paying much attention to his lessons. He entered Harvard at the early age of fourteen, but never attained a high rank there, although he took a prize for an essay on Socrates, and was made class poet after several others had declined. Next to his reserve and the faultless proprie
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CRITICAL OPINIONS OF EMERSON AND HIS WRITINGS.
CRITICAL OPINIONS OF EMERSON AND HIS WRITINGS.
Matthew Arnold , in an address on Emerson delivered in Boston, gave an excellent estimate of the rank we should accord to him in the great hierarchy of letters. Some, perhaps, will think that Arnold was unappreciative and cold, but dispassionate readers will be inclined to agree with his judgment of our great American. After a review of the poetical works of Emerson the English critic draws his conclusions as follows: "I do not then place Emerson among the great poets. But I go farther, and say
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.
This address was delivered at Cambridge in 1837, before the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, a college fraternity composed of the first twenty-five men in each graduating class. The society has annual meetings, which have been the occasion for addresses from the most distinguished scholars and thinkers of the day. Mr. President and Gentlemen, I greet you on the recommencement of our literary year. Our anniversary is one of hope, and, perhaps, not enough of labor. We do not meet for
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COMPENSATION.[93]
COMPENSATION.[93]
Ever since I was a boy, I have wished to write a discourse on Compensation: for it seemed to me when very young, that on this subject life was ahead of theology, and the people knew more than the preachers taught. The documents, [94] too, from which the doctrine is to be drawn, charmed my fancy by their endless variety, and lay always before me, even in sleep; for they are the tools in our hands, the bread in our basket, the transactions of the street, the farm, and the dwelling-house, greetings
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SELF-RELIANCE
SELF-RELIANCE
"Ne te quæsiveris extra." [145] I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instill is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius. [148] Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; [14
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FRIENDSHIP.[278]
FRIENDSHIP.[278]
1. We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. Barring all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. How many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who honor us! How many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! Read the language of these wandering eyebeams. The heart knoweth. 2. The effect of the indu
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HEROISM[309]
HEROISM[309]
1. In the elder English dramatists, [311] and mainly in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, [312] there is a constant recognition of gentility, as if a noble behavior were as easily marked in the society of their age, as color is in our American population. When any Rodrigo, Pedro, or Valerio [313] enters, though he be a stranger, the duke or governor exclaims, This is a gentleman,—and proffers civilities without end; but all the rest are slag and refuse. In harmony with this delight in personal
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MANNERS[367]
MANNERS[367]
1. Half the world, it is said, knows not how the other half live. Our Exploring Expedition saw the Feejee Islanders [368] getting their dinner off human bones; and they are said to eat their own wives and children. The husbandry of the modern inhabitants of Gournou [369] (west of old Thebes) is philosophical to a fault. To set up their housekeeping, nothing is requisite but two or three earthen pots, a stone to grind meal, and a mat which is the bed. The house, namely, a tomb, is ready without r
38 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
GIFTS[456]
GIFTS[456]
1. It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay, and ought to go into chancery, [457] and be sold. I do not think this general insolvency, which involves in some sort all the population, to be the reason of the difficulty experienced at Christmas and New Year, and other times, in bestowing gifts; since it is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts. But the impediment lies in the choosing. If, at any
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
NATURE[469]
NATURE[469]
1. There are days [470] which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and the earth, make a harmony, as if nature would indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet, nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the groun
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SHAKSPEARE;[525] OR, THE POET
SHAKSPEARE;[525] OR, THE POET
1. Great men are more distinguished by range and extent, than by originality. If we require the originality which consists in weaving, like a spider, their web from their own bowels; in finding clay, and making bricks, and building the house; no great men are original. Nor does valuable originality consist in unlikeness to other men. The hero is in the press of knights, and the thick of events; and, seeing what men want, and sharing their desire, he adds the needful length of sight and of arm, t
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PRUDENCE.[660]
PRUDENCE.[660]
What right have I to write on Prudence, whereof I have little, and that of the negative sort? My prudence consists in avoiding and going without, not in the inventing of means and methods, not in adroit steering, not in gentle repairing. I have no skill to make money spend well, no genius in my economy, and whoever sees my garden discovers that I must have some other garden. Yet I love facts, and hate lubricity [661] and people without perception. Then I have the same title to write on prudence
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CIRCLES.[690]
CIRCLES.[690]
The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary picture is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St. Augustine [691] described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere and its circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms. One moral we have already deduced in considering the circular or compensatory character of every human action. Anot
43 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR
[4] Pole-star. Polaris is now the nearest conspicuous star to the north pole of the celestial equator. Owing to the motion of the pole of the celestial equator around that of the ecliptic, this star will in course of time recede from its proud position, and the brilliant star Vega in the constellation Harp will become the pole-star. [5] It is now a well-recognized fact in the development of animal life that as any part of the body falls into disuse it in time disappears. Good examples of this ar
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COMPENSATION
COMPENSATION
[93] These lines are printed under the title of Compensation in Emerson's collected poems. He has also another poem of eight lines with the same title. [94] Documents , data, facts. [95] This doctrine, which a little observation would confute, is still taught by some. [96] Doubloons , Spanish and South American gold coins of the value of about $15.60 each. [97] Polarity , that quality or condition of a body by virtue of which it exhibits opposite or contrasted properties in opposite or contraste
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SELF-RELIANCE
SELF-RELIANCE
[145] Ne te , etc. "Do not seek for anything outside of thyself." From Persius, Sat. I. 7. Compare Macrobius, Com. in Somn. Scip. , I. ix. 3, and Boethius, De Consol. Phil. , IV. 4. [146] Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune . [147] These lines appear in Emerson's Quatrains under the title Power . [148] Genius . See the paragraph on genius in Emerson's lecture on The Method of Nature , one sentence of which runs: "Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of it
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FRIENDSHIP
FRIENDSHIP
[278] Most of Emerson's Essays were first delivered as lectures, in practically the form in which they afterwards appeared in print. The form and style, it is true, were always carefully revised before publication; this Emerson called 'giving his thoughts a Greek dress.' His essay on Friendship , published in the First Series of Essays in 1841 was not, so far as we know, delivered as a lecture; parts of it, however, were taken from lectures which Emerson delivered on Society , The Heart , and Pr
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
HEROISM
HEROISM
[309] Title. Probably this essay is, essentially at least, the lecture on Heroism delivered in Boston in the winter of 1837, in the course of lectures on Human Culture . [310] Motto. This saying of Mahomet's was the only motto prefixed to the essay in the first edition. In later editions, Emerson prefixed, according to his custom, some original lines; [311] Elder English dramatists. The dramatists who preceded Shakespeare. In his essay on Shakespeare; or, the Poet , Emerson enumerates the foremo
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MANNERS
MANNERS
[367] The essay on Manners is from the Second Series of Essays , published in 1844, three years after the First Series. The essays in this volume, like those in the first, were, for the most part, made up of Emerson's lectures, rearranged and corrected. The lecture on Manners had been delivered in the winter of 1841. He had given another lecture on the same subject about four years before, and several years later he treated of the same subject in his essay on Behavior in The Conduct of Life . Yo
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
GIFTS
GIFTS
[456] This essay was first printed in the periodical called The Dial . It was a part of Emerson's philosophic faith that there is no such thing as giving,—everything that belongs to a man or that he ought to have, will come to him. But in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, Emerson was a gracious giver and receiver. In his family the old New England custom of New Year's presents was kept up to his last days. His presents were accompanied with verses to be read before the gift was opened.
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
NATURE
NATURE
[469] Nature. Emerson's first published volume was a little book of essays, entitled Nature , which appeared in 1836. In the years which followed, he thought more deeply on the subject and, according to his custom, made notes about it and entries in his journals. In the winter of 1843 he delivered a lecture on Relation to Nature , and it is probable that this essay is built up from that. The plan of it, however, had been long in his mind: In 1840 he wrote in his journal: "I think I must do these
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET
SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET
[525] Shakespeare; or the Poet is one of seven essays on great men in various walks of life, published in 1850 under the title of Representative Men . These essays were first delivered as lectures in Boston in the winter of 1845, and were repeated two years later before English audiences. They must have been especially interesting to those Englishmen who had, seven years before, heard Emerson's friend, Carlyle, deliver his six lectures on great men whom he selected as representative ones. These
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PRUDENCE
PRUDENCE
[660] The essay on Prudence was given as a lecture in the course on Human Culture , in the winter of 1837-8. It was published in the first series of Essays , which appeared in 1841. [661] Lubricity. The word means literally the state or quality of being slippery; Emerson uses it several times, in its derived sense of "instability." [662] Love and Friendship. The subjects of the two essays preceding Prudence , in the volume of 1841. [663] The world is filled with the proverbs , etc. Compare with
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CIRCLES
CIRCLES
[690] This essay first appeared in the first series of Essays , published in 1841. Unlike most of the other essays in the volume, no earlier form of it exists, and it was probably not delivered first as a lecture. Dr. Richard Garnett says in his Life of Emerson : "The object of this fine essay quaintly entitled Circles is to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it beg
55 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter