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,

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This 1870 collection of essays was drawn from Emerson's lectures delivered over the previous twelve years. The title essay features Emerson's defense of solitude against the demands of society. Among the other works included are "Civilization," "Art," "Eloquence," "Domestic Life," "Works and Days," and "Old Age."

During the 1800s in America, the rise of industrialization reduced the cost of goods allowing people to have more possessions than ever before. However, a group known as the Transcendentalists believed that possessions created vanity. Instead, they valued the individual's relationship with divinity. One of the movement's most famous members, Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote prolifically about his beliefs and experiences. A representative selection of his...

This collection of essays, published in 1856, grew out of Emerson's travels in England, undertaken shortly after he resigned his ministry following a loss of faith. An insightful survey of English history and manners, English Traits also features accounts of Emerson's meetings with such luminaries as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Carlyle.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist and poet. One of the young nation's first recognized public intellectuals, he championed the writing of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman and opined on everything from the evils of slavery to the glories of solitude. His essays such as "Self-Reliance" argued for a distinctly American style of philosophical individualism, untethered...

In "Gifts" Ralph Waldo Emerson muses on the function of and expectations surrounding the giving of gifs. He touches on what gifts communicate about the nature of the giver and receiver, and how the best kind of gift is a gift of love.

Emerson's discourse on "the laws of compensation", takes on the notion that one who has money must be wicked and those who do not must be good, among other topics. It appeared in his book "Essays", first published in 1841.

The essay on "Prudence" was given as a lecture in a course on Human Culture, in the winter of 1837-8. It was published in the first series of Essays, which appeared in 1841. In it, Emerson describes Prudence as "The virtue of the senses" and admits to having little of it in himself.

In The Poet, an essay by U.S. writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, the author expresses the need for the United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the new country's virtues and vices. It is not about men of poetical talents, or of industry and skill in meter, but of the true poet. After reading the essay, Walt Whitman consciously set out to answer Emerson's call. When the 1855 edition of Leaves Of Grass was first published, Whitman sent...

Essayist, poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) propounded a transcendental idealism emphasizing self-reliance, self-culture and individual expression. The six essays and one address included in this volume, selected from Essays, First Series (1841) and Essays, Second Series (1844), offer a representative sampling of his views outlining that moral idealism as well as a hint of the later scepticism that colored his thought. In addition...