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PREFACE

T has seemed fitting in the one hundredth year since the birth of Emerson to prepare a new edition of his writings in prose and verse. Nearly twenty years have gone by since the last edition was published. Mr. Emerson in his later years, when he found himself unequal to the task of revising the manuscript of his lectures and arranging the matter in permanent form, with hesitation approached on the subject the one man in whose taste and judgment he most confided, Mr. James Elliot Cabot. His friend consented, and came constantly to Concord to work on the papers, with most gratifying results. By him Letters and Social Aims was prepared for the press. Mr. Emerson in his will appointed. him his literary executor.

Two years after Mr. Emerson's death, eleven volumes, carefully edited by Mr. Cabot, were published in the "Riverside Edition"; and a twelfth was added in 1895. The preparation of the three posthumous volumes required much care and labor, and this work was excellently done.