INCLUDING THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON EDITED WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION BY EUGENE D. HOLMES, M.A. HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH IN THE ALBANY New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD 1912 All rights reserved HARVARD 44 * 2 31 COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1905. PREFATORY NOTE THE Essays for this edition have been chosen with the utmost care. Directors of departments of English and experienced teachers in prominent schools have kindly assisted the editor by submitting lists of our author's Essays which have proved most profitable to classes of students. There is not an essay in this edition which has not been approved by at least two teachers of English. The text has been carefully collated. It is based on the very excellent texts of 1850 and 1860. No alteration of Mr. Emerson's expressions has been made, not even to correct an evident error in statement, or in grammatical or rhetorical form. These defects are relatively very slight. In the preparation of this edition for schools, the editor is indebted to many biographies and criticisms of Mr. Emerson, especially to those of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Dr. Richard Garnett, and Mr. J. Elliot Cabot. For assistance in collating and annotating several of the Essays, I am under great obligation to Miss Jean Dean Cole of Mount Vernon Seminary, Washington, D.C., lately associate teacher of English in the Albany, N.Y., High School. I should be remiss, if I should fail to mention my indebtedness to Miss Florence Haines and to Miss Edith Ross, my pupils, who have assisted me in many helpful ways. E. D. H. |