Ralph Waldo Emerson set out on his first visit to Europe in 1831,passing throuth Italy,Switzerland and France to Britain,and visiting Landor,Coleridge,Wordsworth,and ,most important of all ,Carlyle,with whom he laid the foundation of a life-long friendship.On his return to America,he took up lecturing,and continued for nearly forty years to use this form of expression for his ideas on religion,politics,literature,and philosophy.He published a succession of volumes of essays,addresses and poems.The spirit and ideas which constitute the essence of his teachings are fully expressed in the essays contained in this volume.The writings here produced belong to the earlier half of his literary activity.However,it may fairly be said that by 1860 Emerson had put forth all his important fundamental ideas,and the later utterances consist largely of restatements and applications of these.Thanks to the singular bearty and condensation of his style,it is thus possible to obtain from this one volume a view of the philosophy of the greatesteof American thinkers.
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