of his long and useful life. His time and interests were devoted to lecturing, studying, and outdoor life with nature. One of the early results of this sort of existence appeared in the volume entitled Nature, 1836. Simultaneous with the publication of this work the Transcendental Club was organized. In 1837 Emerson delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society his famous American Scholar, "our intellectual Declaration of Independence." An address the following year before the divinity class at Harvard served to establish Emerson at the head of philosophical thinkers in America. The Essays, first series, came out in 1841, the second series in 1844. From this time on, Emerson continued to lecture in various parts of the United States, in England and in Ireland, and produced numerous essays and poems. In 1872 Emerson's house at Concord was burned, his neighbors sent him to Europe for a much-needed rest, and rebuilt his residence while he was away. On his return, his friends met him in procession. To within a year of his death Emerson continued to read and lecture before the public. He died April 27, 1882, and lies buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, near Thoreau and Hawthorne.

BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES.

J. E. Cabot, A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 2 vols. (H. M. & Co., 1887). O. W. Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson (in American Men of Letters). John Albee, Remembrances of Emerson (Grafton Press, 1901). C. J. Woodbury, Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson (Baker & Taylor Co., N. Y.). G. E. Woodberry, Ralph Waldo Emerson (in English Men of Letters). E. W. Emerson, Emerson in Concord. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson (Osgood, 1883). E. E. Hale, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Brown & Co., 1899). R. Garnett, Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (in Great Writer Series). A. Ireland, A Biographical Sketch, Personal Recollections of His Visits to England (Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1882). Letters and Passages from Letters to a Friend (1838-1853), ed. by C. E. Norton (H. M. & Co., 1899).

CRITICAL REFERENCES.

G. W. Cooke, Ralph Waldo Emerson (H. M. & Co., 1900). F. B. Sanborn, editor, The Genius and Character of Emerson (Osgood, 1885). A. Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cupples & Hurd). A. H. Guernsey, Ralph Waldo Emerson (Appleton, 1881). Julian Hawthorne, Emerson as an American (in Confessions and Criticisms, Ticknor, 1887). J. B. Crozier, The Religion of the Future (London, 1880). John Burroughs, Emerson and the Superlative (Osgood, 1882). Joel Benton, Emerson as a Poet (Holbrook, 1883). E. P. Whipple, American Litera

ture and Other Papers (Ticknor, 1887). John Morley, Emerson, An Essay (Macm. Co., 1884). Matthew Arnold, Discourses in America (Macm., 1885). W. F. Dana, Optimism of Emerson (Cupples, 1886). H. E. Scudder, Men and Letters (H. M. & Co., 1887). J. J. Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays (Scrib., 1898). G. W. Curtis, Literary and Social Essays (Harper, 1895). O. B. Frothingham, Transcendentalism in New England. Justin Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, Vol. III, article on "Unitarianism in Boston," by Andrew P. Peabody.

AUTHOR'S WORKS.

Good-bye Proud World, 1824. Nature, 1836. Essays, 1st Series, 1841; 2d Series, 1844. Poems, 1847. Miscellanies, 1849. Representative Men, 1850. English Traits, 1856. Conduct of Life, 1860. May-Day and Other Pieces, 1867. Society and Solitude, 1870. Letters and Social Aims, 1876. Correspondence of Carlyle and Emerson, 1883. Natural History of the Intellect, 1893 (reprinted from Dial).

Emerson's works are published in the Riverside Edition, 12 vols. The complete poetical works are published in one volume in the Household Edition.

REQUIRED READING.

Students intending to take the Extension examination will be held responsible for the following:

a. Essays: Self-Reliance, Compensation, Heroism, Circles, Spiritual Laws, Oversoul, Character, Manners.

b. One of the following: Nature, Conduct of Life, Representative Men, Society and Solitude.

c. Poems: Each and All, The Problem, Rhodora, Woodnotes, The Humble Bee, The Snow-Storm, Days, Monadnock, and the Threnody.

LECTURE OUTLINE.

I. Reactionary "Movements" at the Beginning of the 19th Century.

a. The spirit of literary and political revolution in England from 1790 to 1832. The philosophy of Kant versus that of Locke. Influence on thought reflected through Fichte, Hegel and others. Coleridge and Carlyle as representing the reaction.

b. The revolt in America against the Genevan doctrine of salvation. Unitarianism. Conscience, not dogma, the creed

of the new faith. Belief in the inherent goodness of humanity. Spiritual freedom the watchword of the Unitarians.

c. Idealism the natural consequence, a transcending the knowledge of human experience, and coming face to face with the infinite. Intuition versus authority in the discovery and recognition of God; spirit versus intellect in determining questions of right and wrong.

d. Individualism,-free thought, free expression, the essence of this attitude of mind.

II. Emerson as the Leading Exponent of Transcendentalism in New England.

a. As minister of the gospel. Attitude towards the forms of religion-Lord's Supper, public prayer, etc. His views respecting Christ as the Redeemer of the race. Attitude towards other religions and other teachers.

b. As lecturer and essayist. Lectures and essays representative of Emerson's transcendentalism. Individualism

the core and constant element (cf. Self-Reliance, Circles, Nature, etc.). Emerson affirmative rather than demonstrative. Essays lack structural unity. They are impersonal, ideal, sometimes obscure, always dignified, stimulating, concise, at times subtly humorous, often contain surpassing beauty in thought and expression.

c. As poet. Two distinct classes of poems. Nature poems spontaneous, even melodious, at times (cf. Woodnotes, Humble Bee, etc.). The philosophical poems resemble the essays, in them moral and spiritual thought taking precedence of poetic form, often resulting in terseness and crudity, as well as lack of clearness and passion. Melody and harmony not always wanting.

d. Summary of Emerson's works.-Hyperbole, apparent incoherence and contradiction, unscientific, unappreciative of sensuous art; but sincere, serene, pure, exalted, optimistic. Not a great intellect, hardly a great man of letters, but a great soul with a "high seriousness," a noble, inspiring teacher, our greatest moral and spiritual guide in American literature.

III. Other Manifestations of Transcendentalism in New England. Henry David Thoreau.-Influence of Emerson on Thoreau. The latter not a disciple of the former. Thoreau's philosophy of life frequently misunderstood, owing to his eccentricities. The ethical and economic significance of Walden. Love of nature of primary importance in attempting to understand and appreciate Thoreau. Thoreau a poetnaturalist filled with the literary spirit. Inferior to Emerson in spiritual insight, he was original, and has a secure place in American literature.

CRITICAL APPRECIATIONS.

one of the legitimate poets, Emerson, in my opinion, is not. His poetry is interesting, it makes one think; but it is not the poetry of one of the born poets. Emerson has passages of noble and pathetic eloquence he has passages of shrewd and felicitous wit; he has crisp epigram; he has passages of exquisitely touched observations of nature. Yet he is not a great writer; his style has not the requisite wholeness of good tissue. Emerson cannot, I think, be called a great philosophical writer. He cannot build. He is the friend and aider of those who would live in the spirit."-Matthew Arnold, Discourses in America, pp. 153, 161, 162, 179.

"Those who are grateful to Mr. Emerson, as many of us are, for what they feel to be most valuable in their culture, or perhaps I should say in their impulse, are grateful not so much for any direct teachings of his as for that inspiring lift which only genius can give, and without which all doctrine is chaff."-J. R. Lowell," Emerson the Lecturer," in Literary Essays, I, 358.

"His poetry is elemental, it has the rock beneath it in the eternal laws on which it rests. He lives in the highest atmosphere of thought."-O. W. Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson (in American Men of Letters), pp. 340, 341.

"As a poet he often takes strange liberties with the established laws of rhyme and rhythm; even his images are occasionally enigmas; but he still contrives to pour through his verse a flood and rush of inspiration not often perceptible in the axiomatic sentences of his most splendid prose."-E. P. Whipple, American Literature, p. 297.

"His works are all one single attack on the vice of the age, moral cowardice. He assails it not by railings and scorn, but by positive and stimulating suggestion."-J. J. Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, p. 29.

"A poet in spirit, if not always in form."-A. Bronson Alcott, Emerson, Philosopher and Seer, p. 312.

LECTURE IV.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Poe's birthplace was Boston. His parents, the father an actor and the mother an English actress, died when their son was two years old. Poe was adopted by Mr. Allan, a well-to-do gentleman of Richmond, Va., who took him to England for five years and sent him to school, at the age of seven, near London. His surroundings here made a deep impression upon Poe, and out of them later came suggestions for portions of the story of William Wilson. Poe was a brilliant and beautiful boy, but untrained and unrestrained by his too indulgent foster-parents. In 1820 the Allans returned to Virginia, where Poe continued his education, entering the University of Virginia in 1826; but gambling debts caused his removal and almost a final break with Mr. Allan, who was now as harsh as he had been indulgent. Poe rebelled, wandered off to Boston and tried to live by his pen. In 1827 his first verses were published. But he who had been used to luxury found the way hard. He enlisted in the army the same year. A final effort of his guardian secured Poe's release from army service, and admission for him to West Point, 1830. Military discipline and routine were distasteful to Poe, and he, perhaps intentionally, brought about his dismissal in 1831. Henceforth, cut off from his guardian, Poe's life was a struggle with poverty. He found he could not live by verse, and so commenced to write short stories, winning a prize of one hundred dollars from the Saturday Visitor for a story entitled A MS. Found in a Bottle. This brought him some journalistic work, and though successful in the many subsequent efforts he made, habits of drink and extravagance brought poverty and defeat. In 1831 Poe was living in Baltimore with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, whose daughter, a girl of thirteen, Poe married in 1836. In Richmond he was editor of The Southern Literary Messenger, 1835-1837. From 1839 to 1840 he edited the Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia, and from 1841 to 1842 he was editor of Graham's Magazine; later, in New York, he was editor and finally owner of The Broadway Journal (1845). Along with a great amount of journalistic hack work on various magazines and papers, Poe produced many original stories and some remarkable poems. In 1847 Poe's child-wife died, whom he had tenderly loved. Poe was taken ill with brain fever, from which he never recovered fully. He died from the results of drink in Baltimore, 1849.