Foreword : the undisguised Emerson -- Chronology -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Nature (1836) -- The American scholar (1837) -- Letter to Martin van Buren, President of the United States, Concord, Mass., April 23, 1838 -- Divinity school address (1838) -- Literary ethics (1838) -- From Essays, First series (1841): History; Self-reliance; Circles -- From Essays, Second series (1844): The poet; Experience; Politics; Nominalist and realist; New England reformers -- An address .o.o. on .o.o. the Anniversary of the Emancipation of the Negroes in the British West Indies (1844) -- From Representative men (1850): Montaigne, or, The skeptic; Shakespeare, or, The poet -- From English traits (1856): First visit to England; Stonehenge; John Brown (1860) -- From The conduct of life (1860): Fate; Power; Illusions -- From Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852) -- Thoreau (1862) -- From Poems (1845): The sphinx; Uriel; The rhodora : on being asked, whence is the flower?; The snow-storm; Ode, inscribed to W.H. Channing; Merlin (I); Merlin (II); Bacchus; Concord hymn, sung at the completion of the battle monument, July 4, 1837 -- From May-day and other pieces (1867): Hafiz; The exile (from the Persian of Kermani); From Hafiz; [They say, through patience, chalk]; Song of Seid Nimetollah of Kuhistan