Six essays and one address outline Emerson's moral idealism and hint at later scepticism. In addition to title essay, this volume includes "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet" and "Experience," plus the Harvard Divinity School Address.
Through his writing and his own personal philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson unburdened his young country of Europe's traditional sense of history and showed Americans how to be creators of their own circumstances. This title introduces fifteen of Emerson's most significant writings.