...also, among the cultured and intellectual, he finds indolence, decency, and complacency. "The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be...private avarice make the air we breathe thick and fat. . . . See already the tragic consequence. The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats...

...things, and compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses. As Emerson said, in 1837, "the spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame." Yet, even at this, his summons to cultural freedom found no ready response outside New England. Domestic...

...preparation, to the American Scholar. We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be...eats upon itself. There is no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant. Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated...

...preparation, to the American Scholar. We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be...eats upon itself. There is no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant. Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated...

...shop, the plough and ledger . . . We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame. . .we will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.' Telescoped...

...preparation, to the American Scholar. We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be...eats upon itself. There is no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant. Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated...

...and stands in a "state of virtual hostility" to American society. Emerson lamented in his words that "public and private avarice make the air we breathe thick and fat" so that there was "no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant." I want to conclude by saying...

...Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame. . . . The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself. And he had claimed in no uncertain terms: "Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning...

...Harvard in 1837, "We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe" and lamented that "The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame," he was only saying what scores of American commencement speakers had said before. The United States...

...same terms, of later artists: "We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be...breathe thick and fat. The scholar is decent, indolent, complacent." Timid, imitative, tame, decent, indolent, complacent. It takes no great powers of divination...