In 1841 he published a volume, known as _Essays, First
Series_, and in 1844, another volume, called _Essays, Second Series_. Other
volumes followed from time to time, such as _Miscellanies_ (1849),
_Representative Men_ (1850), _English Traits_ (1856), _The Conduct of Life_
(1860), _Society and Solitude_ (1870). While the _First Series_ of these
_Essays_ is the most popular, one may find profitable reading and even
inspiring passages scattered through almost all of his works, which
continued to appear for more than forty years.
When we examine his _Essays, First Series_, we find that the volume is
composed of short essays on such subjects as _History_, _Self-Reliance_,
_Friendship_, _Heroism_, and the _Over-Soul_. If we choose to read
_Self-Reliance_, one of his most typical essays, we shall find that the
sentences, or the clauses which take the place of sentences, are short,
vigorous, and intended to reach the attention through the ear. For
instance, he says in this essay:--
"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the
conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that
he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion.
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