Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume II: 1836-1838

by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Stephen E. Whicher, Robert E. Spiller, Wallace E. Williams

Overview

The notable link between Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journals and his essays is formed by the lectures that reflected his developing views on issues of his time. This second volume of a welcome edition of the early lectures follows the earlier experimental series of lectures and presents the works of Emerson the now professional lecturer who revealed to his audience central ideas and themes which later crystallized into Essays, First Series.

“The Philosophy of History,” a series of 12 lectures, explores the nature of man in his society, past and present, and singles out the individual as the center of society and history. A second series of 10 lectures on “Human Culture” begins with the duty and the right of the individual to cultivate his powers and proceeds to consider various means by which this cultivation can be accomplished. The occasional “Address on Education,” which Emerson delivered between these two series, may be seen as a link between them.

Of the twenty-three lectures in this volume, only three have been previously published. The lectures have been reproduced from Emerson’s manuscripts, approximating as nearly as possible the original version read by the author to his audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674221512
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1964
Series:	Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson Series , #2
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	526
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.50(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Philosophy of History

1. Introductory

2. Humanity of Science

3. Art

4. Literature

5. Politics

6. Religion

7. Society

8. Trades and Professions

9. Manners

10. Ethics

11. The Present Age

12. The Individual

2. Address on Education

(On Opening the Greene Street School, Providence, R. I., 10 June, 1837)

3. Human Culture

1. Introductory

2. Doctrine of the Hands

3. The Head

4. The Eye and Ear

5. The Heart

6. Being and Seeming

7. Prudence

8. Heroism

9. Holiness

10. General Views

Bibliography of Principal Sources

Textual Notes and Variant Passages

Index

Editorial Reviews

The task of editing these pieces [the lectures] for publication has been performed not only with scholarly care and thoroughness but with commendable taste and an eye to the needs of the ordinary literature reader as well as of the special scholar. A general introduction supplies just the amount of information about Emerson’s beginnings as a lyceum speaker that is required, and there are brief and useful introductions to the separate parts. The result is a really important addition to the corpus of Emerson’s works. No reader who cares seriously for the greatest of our wisdom-writers will wish to be without it… There is hardly a page of this volume, however, that is without an interest, and often an extreme interest, for the reader of Emerson.

New York Times

[T]he really striking fact about this volume is that not only is it a volume that will satisfy the scholar, it also is a volume that every layman who is at all interested in Emerson will want to read.

Chicago Sunday Tribune