Essays: First Series


Essays: First Series is a series of essays written by Ralph [Waldo Emerson], published in 1841, concerning transcendentalism.

Essays

The book contains:
  1. "History"
  2. "Self-Reliance"
  3. "Compensation"
  4. "Spiritual Laws"
  5. "Love"
  6. "Friendship"
  7. "Prudence"
  8. "Heroism"
  9. "The Over-Soul"
  10. "Circles"
  11. "Intellect"
  12. "Art"

Reception

Many noted the influence of Thomas Carlyle. An anonymous English reviewer voiced the mainstream view when he wrote that the author of the book "out-Carlyles Carlyle himself," "imitat his inflations, his verbiage, his Germanico-Kantian abstractions, his metaphysics and mysticism." Jane Welsh Carlyle agreed, giving her impression in a letter to John [Sterling (author)|John Sterling]: "I find him getting affected, stilted, mystical, and in short 'a considerable of a bore' A bad immitation of Carlyle's most Carlylish translations of Johann [Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethes] most Goetheish passages!" For his part, Sterling described them to William Coningham as "the only book of any pith and significance that has dawned here lately... which at a glance, seem far ahead in compass and brilliancy of almost everything England has of late years produced".

Musical setting

Three fragments from the essay "Spiritual Laws" form the backbone of composer Kaija Saariaho's True Fire for baritone and orchestra, a piece of music that collages texts from various sources. The piece's title is taken from the essay's final sentence, that concludes also the setting: "We know the authentic effects of the true fire through every one of its million disguises."