"The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872 - Vol II" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).

"The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872 - Vol. I" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).

"Nature" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).

"Poems" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).

It is natural to believe in great men. If the companions of our childhood should turn out to be heroes, and their condition regal, it would not surprise us. All mythology opens with demigods, and the circumstance is high and poetic; that is, their genius is paramount. In the legends of the Gautama, the first men ate the earth, and found it deliciously sweet.

Delicate omens traced in air To the lone bard true witness bare; Birds with auguries on their wings Chanted undeceiving things Him to beckon, him to warn; Well might then the poet scorn To learn of scribe or courier Hints writ in vaster character; And on his mind, at dawn of day, Soft shadows of the evening lay. For the prevision is allied Unto the thing so signified;

"May-Day and Other Pieces" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).

Excerpt from Essays: Second Series
Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold. Their knowledge of the fine arts is some study of rules and particulars, or some limited judgment of color or...

"Essays - Second Series" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).

"English Traits" from Ralph Waldo Emerson. American essayist, lecturer, and poet (1803-1882).