Essays: Second Series

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) lead Transcendentalism in the early nineteenth century and greatly influenced the later New Thought movement. Summing up his work, Emerson said that his primary principle was "the infinitude of the private man", and advised to "make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." His Second Series collects together the following 9 essays: The Poet, Experience, Character, Manners, Gifts, Nature, Politics, Nominalist and Realist and New England Reformers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: Aug 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329575158

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leading proponent of the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. He was ordained as a Unitarian minister at Harvard Divinity School but served for only three years before developing his own spiritual philosophy based on individualism and intuition. His essay Nature is arguably his best-known work and was both groundbreaking and highly controversial when it was first published. Emerson also wrote poetry and lectured widely across the US.

Reviews for Essays

[smallself · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Emerson is at once high-minded, and level-headed. (Paraphrase:) “I went to the Vatican Museum, and in the poets and saints in paintings there I saw long-lost friends.” “I went to Rome to see art, although of course if I had wanted to see what people look like, I might have just stayed in Boston.”.........................I also think that the question of language, (I read each section twice), is more a matter of large ideas than funny dialect; it does have substance to it. And it’s nice to know that I’m not the first one to wonder if what we learn is of any use— a question that once vexed me sorely.