AN ADDRESS TO THE SENIOR CLASS IN DIVINITY
COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, JULY 15, 1838

. 113

LITERARY ETHICS. AN ADDRESS TO THE LITERARY
SOCIETIES IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, JULY 24, 1838 . 147

THE METHOD OF NATURE. AN ADDRESS TO THE
SOCIETY OF THE ADELPHI, in WatervillE COL-
LEGE, MAINE, AUGUST 11, 1841

. 181

MAN THE REFORMER. A LECTURE READ BEFORE
THE MECHANICS' APPRENTICES' LIBRARY ASSOCIA-
TION, BOSTON, JANUARY 25, 1841

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON THE TIMES. READ

217

IN THE MASONIC TEMPLE, BOSTON, DEC. 2, 1841. 249

THE CONSERVATIVE.

A LECTURE READ IN THE

MASONIC TEMPLE, BOSTON, DECEMBER 9, 1841 283

IN

THE TRANSCENDENTALIST. A LECTURE READ
THE MASONIC TEMPLE, BOSTON, JANUARY, 1842 316

A LECTURE READ ΤΟ

THE YOUNG AMERICAN.
THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, IN BOSTON,

NATURE.

A subtle chain of countless rings
The next unto the farthest brings;
The eye reads omens where it goes,
And speaks all languages the rose ;
And, striving to be man, the worm
Mounts through all the spires of form.

INTRODUCTION.

OUR age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.