Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Bibliographical note
- Selections from Nature: Introduction
- Selections from Nature: Language
- Journal entries: 1837
- The American Scholar
- The Divinity School Address
- Uriel
- Concord Hymn
- Letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States
- Self-Reliance
- Compensation
- Concerning Brook Farm
- Man the Reformer
- Politics
- Journal entries: 1840 and 1844
- Ode: Inscribed to W. H. Channing
- Address to the Citizens of Concord
- Webster and 1854
- Journal entry: 1851
- Woman. A Lecture Read Before the Woman's Rights Convention, September 20, 1855
- Napoleon; or, the Man of the World from Representative Men
- Speech at a Meeting for the Relief of the Family of John Brown
- John Brown. Speech at Salem
- Fate
- Power
- Journal entry: 1862
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Journal entries: 1837
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Bibliographical note
- Selections from Nature: Introduction
- Selections from Nature: Language
- Journal entries: 1837
- The American Scholar
- The Divinity School Address
- Uriel
- Concord Hymn
- Letter to Martin Van Buren, President of the United States
- Self-Reliance
- Compensation
- Concerning Brook Farm
- Man the Reformer
- Politics
- Journal entries: 1840 and 1844
- Ode: Inscribed to W. H. Channing
- Address to the Citizens of Concord
- Webster and 1854
- Journal entry: 1851
- Woman. A Lecture Read Before the Woman's Rights Convention, September 20, 1855
- Napoleon; or, the Man of the World from Representative Men
- Speech at a Meeting for the Relief of the Family of John Brown
- John Brown. Speech at Salem
- Fate
- Power
- Journal entry: 1862
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Summary
May 22, 1837
People are stung by a pregnant saying and will continue to repeat it without seeing its meaning. I said “If you sleep, you show character” – and the young girls asked what it could mean. I will tell you. You think that because you have spoken nothing when others spoke and have given no opinion upon the times, upon Wilhelm Meister, upon Abolition, upon Harvard College, that your verdict is still expected with curiosity as a reserved wisdom. Far otherwise; it is known that you have no opinion: You are measured by your silence & found wanting. You have no oracle to utter, & your fellowmen have learned that you cannot help them; for oracles speak. Doth not wisdom cry & understanding put forth her voice?
November 24, 1837
When a zealot comes to me & represents the importance of this Temperance Reform my hands drop – I have no excuse – I honor him with shame at my own inaction.
Then a friend of the slave shows me the horrors of Southern slavery – I cry guilty guilty! Then a philanthropist tells me the shameful neglect of the Schools by the Citizens. I feel guilty again.
Then I hear of Byron or Milton who drank soda water & ate a crust whilst others fed fat & I take the confessional anew.
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- Information
- Emerson: Political Writings , pp. 9 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008