Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882 / 2008-07-26 00:00:00
EBOOK REPRESENTATIVE MEN ***
Produced by Miranda van de Heijning, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
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REPRESENTATIVE MEN
SEVEN LECTURES
BY
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
I. Uses of Great Men
II. Plato; or, the Philosopher
Plato; New Readings
III. Swedenborg; or, the Mystic
IV. Montaigne; or, the Skeptic
V. Shakspeare; or, the Poet
VI. Napoleon; or, the Man of the World
VII. Goethe; or, the Writer
I. USES OF GREAT MEN.
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.
Nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the
veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived
with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable
only in our belief in such society; and actually, or ideally, we manage
to live with superiors.
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