Volume I, Nature, Addresses and Lectures, contains Emerson’s first published work, Nature, originally published anonymously in 1836 as a ninety-five page volume. At the time it was considered "one of most startlingly new notes, all circumstances considered, ever to be struck in American literature." The little book did not sell well, but it drew great interest to Emerson and helped to launch his career as a lecturer.The rest of the volume contains important work, including "The American Scholar," delivered at Harvard in 1837, and the great "Divinity School Address," which was so controversial that Emerson was not invited back to speak at Harvard for thirty years.
Nature (1836) (complete book) by Ralph Waldo Emerson A subtle chain of countless rings The next unto the farthest brings; The eye reads omens where it goes, And speaks all languages the rose; And, striving to be man, the worm…
Nature: Introduction (Glossary for Emerson’s Nature) Chapter I. Nature Chapter II. Commodity Chapter III. Beauty Chapter IV. Language Chapter V. Discipline Chapter VI. Idealism Chapter VII. Spirit Chapter VIII. Prospects The American Scholar The Young American The Conservative Divinity School…
A Lecture read before the Mercantile Library Association,Boston, February 7, 1844 GENTLEMEN: It is remarkable, that our people have their intellectual culture from one country, and their duties from another. This false state of things is newly in a way…
A Lecture read at the Masonic Temple, Boston,January, 1842 The first thing we have to say respecting what are called "new views" here in New England, at the present time, is, that they are not new, but the very oldest…
A Lecture delivered at the Masonic Temple,Boston, December 9, 1841 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…
Read at the Masonic Temple, Boston,December 2, 1841 The times, as we say — or the present aspects of our social state, the Laws, Divinity, Natural Science, Agriculture, Art, Trade, Letters, have their root in an invisible spiritual reality. To…
A Lecture read before the Mechanics' Apprentices' LibraryAssociation, Boston, January 25, 1841 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…
An Oration delivered before the Society of the Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, August 11, 1841 GENTLEMEN, Let us exchange congratulations on the enjoyments and the promises of this literary anniversary. The land we live in has no interest so…
An Oration delivered before the Literary Societies ofDartmouth College, July 24, 1838 GENTLEMEN, The invitation to address you this day, with which you have honored me, was so welcome, that I made haste to obey it. A summons to…
Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838 In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with…