the last in a long
line of clergymen, his ancestors, and that the modern doctrine of
heredity accounts for the impressive emphasis he laid on the moral
sentiment; but that does not solve the puzzle why he unmistakably
differed in his nature and genius from all other Emersons. An
imaginary genealogical chart of descent connecting him with Confucius
or Gautama would be more satisfactory.

"What distinguishes _the_ Emerson was his exceptional genius and
character, that something in him which separated him from all other
Emersons, as it separated him from all other eminent men of letters,
and impressed every intelligent reader with the feeling that he was
not only 'original but aboriginal.' Some traits of his mind and
character may be traced back to his ancestors, but what doctrine of
heredity can give us the genesis of his genius? Indeed, the safest
course to pursue is to quote his own words, and despairingly confess
that it is the nature of genius 'to spring, like the rainbow daughter
of Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past, and refuse all
history.'"

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EMERSON'S PRINCIPAL WORKS.

Nature 1836
Essays (First Series) 1841
Essays (Second Series) 1844
Poems 1847
Miscellanies 1849
Representative Men 1850
English Traits 1856
Conduct of Life 1860
Society and Solitude 1870
Correspondence of Thomas
Carlyle and R.W. Emerson 1883

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR.

This address was delivered at Cambridge in 1837, before the
Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, a college
fraternity composed of the first twenty-five men in each
graduating class. The society has annual meetings, which
have been the occasion for addresses from the most
distinguished scholars and thinkers of the day.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN,

I greet you on the recommencement of our literary year. Our
anniversary is one of hope, and, perhaps, not enough of labor. We do
not meet for games of strength[1] or skill, for the recitation of
histories, tragedies, and odes, like the ancient Greeks; for
parliaments of love and poesy, like the Troubadours;[2] nor for the
advancement of science, like our co-temporaries in the British and
European capitals. Thus far, our holiday has been simply a friendly
sign of the survival of the love of letters a