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Article: Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson.(Book review)
- Article from:
- Nineteenth-Century Prose
- Article date:
- September 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Nineteenth-Century Prose. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume 4, ed. Wesley T. Mott (U Missouri P, 1992), 477 pp., $44.95 cloth.
Addressing his congregation in early 1832, Emerson reminded his listeners of a quite singular duty. He told them, "Settle every thing anew for yourself, especially whatever things are esteemed finally settled" (p. 79). In these last months as a "settled minister," Emerson turned with renewed interest to individual authority, an authority he located in intellect and saw enacted through interpretation. Sermons repeatedly affirmed the power of the mind and encouraged the individual to "act his thought" (p. 206). Never one to ...