Emerson's Essays

· Harper Perennial
Ebook
480
Pages

About this ebook

An amalgamation of two books published in 1841 and 1844, the 21 pieces known as "Essays: First and Second Series" describe Emerson's concepts of self-reliance, the law of compensation (a sort of yin-yang polarity in morality), and the transcendental Over-Soul, an ideal Emerson first enunciated (without naming it as such) in his infamous Divinity School Address, for which he was accused of atheism. "The world is not the product of manifold power, but of one will, of one mind; and that one mind is everywhere active," he said to Harvard's startled divinity students and teachers. "All things proceed out of the same spirit." In these essays, he expands upon this notion of the individual Self as part of a universal All, of the human soul bound by a physical body yet tethered to an omniscient spirit.
An amalgamation of two books published in 1841 and 1844, the 21 pieces known as "Essays: First and Second Series" describe Emerson's concepts of self-reliance, the law of compensation (a sort of yin-yang polarity in morality), and the transcendental Over-Soul, an ideal Emerson first enunciated (w...

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1803. A self-proclaimed "Naturalist," Emerson founded a distinctly American philosophy emphasizing optimism, individuality, and mysticism. In the 1840's, his essays, speeches, and poetry defined him as a central character in the Trancendental movement, and ultimately shaped him into one of the most influential literary figures of the nineteenth century. He died of pneumonia in 1882 in Concord, Massachusetts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1803. A self-proclaimed "Naturalist," Emerson founded a distinctly American philosophy emphasizing optimism, individuality, and mysticism. In the 1840's, his essays, speeches, and poetry defined him as a central character in the Trancendent...

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