Nature; Addresses, and Lectures (1849)

Summary

Doubtless there is nothing in this volume which the admirers of its distinguished author have not already in possession. But the contents of it have never appeared together before, nor in such an inviting form. The fair type and paper will even help to the better understanding of some of the oracles in these pages. We apprehend that the highest, the most enduring, and the most just encomium which Emerson will receive will not be from the coterie who regard him as an inspired seer, but from the larger, the more discriminating, and the really more intelligent body of his readers, who find on every page of his proofs of a most pure spirit and a loving heart, without one breathing of an unholy or rancorous feeling. Nine Addresses and Lectures, before various literary societies and lyceums, beside the Essay on Nature, compose the contents of this volume, which will be as original a century hence as it is now.

This volume is a republication of articles long since printed, but now first collected together. We have never read any of it before. We opened it with curiosity, knowing the power of the author as a thinker and writer; read it with mingled delight and disgust; and closed it in sadness.