Goethe; or, the Writer
I FIND a provision in the constitution of the world for the writer, or secretary, who is to report the doings of the miraculous spirit of life that everywhere throbs and works. His office is a reception of the facts…
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Category IV – Representative Men
In Representative Men Emerson explores the theme of "The Uses of Great Men" and in that introductory essay, he deals with the important issue of the differences between genius and so-called "ordinary" persons. He was a great beliver in the idea that "There is one mind common to all individual men" and that "in every work of genious we recognize our own rejected thoughts."
Napoleon; or, the Man of the World
AMONG the eminent persons of the nineteenth century, Bonaparte is far the best known and the most powerful; and owes his predominance to the fidelity with which he expresses the tone of thought and belief, the aims of the masses…
Shakspeare; or, the Poet
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;…
Montaigne; or, the Skeptic
EVERY FACT is related on one side to sensation, and on the other to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under…
Swedenborg; or, the Mystic
AMONG eminent persons, those who are most dear to men are not of the class which the economist calls producers: they have nothing in their hands; they have not cultivated corn, nor made bread; they have not led out a…
Plato; or, the Philosopher
AMONG secular books, Plato only is entitled to Omar’s fanatical compliment to the Koran, when he said, “Burn the libraries; for their value is in this book.” These sentences contain the culture of nations; these are the corner-stone of schools;…
Uses of Great Men
IT IS NATURAL to believe in great men. If the companions of our childhood should turn out to be heroes, and their condition regal it would not surprise us. All mythology opens with demigods, and the circumstance is high and…