Representative Men Seven Lectures Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson In 1845 Ralph Waldo Emerson began a series of lectures and writings in which he limned six figures who embodied the principles and aspirations of a still-young American republic. Emerson offers timeless meditations on the value of individual greatness, reconnecting readers with the everyday virtues of his ?Representative Men?: Plato, in whose wr... more »itings are contained ?the culture of nations?; Emanuel Swedenborg, a ?rich discoverer? who strove to unite the scientific and spiritual planes; Michel de Montaigne, ?the frankest and honestest of all writers?; William Shakespeare, who ?wrote the text of modern life?; Napoleon Bonaparte, who had the ?virtues and vices? of common men writ large; and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who ?in conversation, in calamity?finds new materials.?« less