English Traits - Softcover

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1602062285 ISBN 13: 9781602062283

Publisher: Cosimo Inc, 2007

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ...men, one man being able by the aid of steam to do the work which required two hundred and fifty men to accomplish fifty years ago. The production has been commensurate. England already had this laborious race, rich soil, water, wood, coal, iron, and favourable climate. Eight hundred years ago, commerce had made it rich, and it was recorded, " England is the richest of all the northern nations." The Norman historians recite, that " in 1067, William carried with him into Normandy from England more gold and silver than had ever before been seen in Gaul." But when to this labour, and trade, and these native resources, was added this goblin of steam, with his myriad arms, never tired, working night and day everlastingly, the amassing of property has run out of all figures. It makes the motor of the last ninety years. The steampipe has added to her population and wealth the equivalent of four or five Englands. Forty thousand ships are entered in Lloyd's lists. The yield of wheat has gone on from 2,000,000 quarters in the time of the Stuarts, to 13,000,000 in 1854. A thousand million of pounds sterling are said to compose the floating money of commerce. In 1818, Lord John Russell stated that the people of this country had laid out 300,000,OOOL of capital in railways, in the last four years. But a better measure than these sounding figures is the estimate, that there is wealth enough in England to support the entire population in idleness for one year. The wise, versatile, all-giving machinery makes chisels, roads, locomotives, telegraphs. Whitworth divides a bar to a millionth of an inch. Steam twines huge cannon into wreaths, as easily as it braids straw, and vies with the volcanic forces which twisted the strata. It can clothe shingle mountains with...

About this title

From the Back Cover

Before he was the "Sage of Concord" and a driving force behind the Transcendental Movement of the 19th century, American poet and philosopher RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882) journeyed to England as a young man, the first of two trips to the Sceptred Isle.

This delightful 1856 book is his examination of the British character gleaned from his travels in England, from the nature of their character to their love of humor, from their celebration of wealth and aristocracy to the grace of its religion.

Not just an intriguing look at the people and places of Britain in the 19th century but an illuminating look inside the mind of a writer who remains a major figure in American literature, this is must-reading for fans of Emerson and of England.

About the Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was one of the most influential literary figures and the leading voice of intellectual culture in 19th century America. An essayist, philosopher, poet, and founder of the Transcendentalist Movement, his many now-iconic writings include Nature, The American Scholar, Self Reliance, The Over-soul, Society and Solitude, and Concord Hymn. Mentor to great writers such as Walt Whitman and Henry Thoreau, Emerson continues to exert a powerful influence on Western thought and literature.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cosimo Inc
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1602062285
• ISBN 13: 9781602062283
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240