Ralph Waldo Emerson's Harvard Divinity Address
The average temperature in Boston during the summer of 1838 was a stifling 90 degrees Fahrenheit - hot enough to cause the six graduates and a select group of esteemed guests to loosen their starched collars as they crowded into the tiny side chapel at Harvard Divinity School for the graduation address. Neither diminutive numbers nor heat would dampen the refreshing gust of thought and inspiration that Ralph Waldo Emerson brought that day. No matter how claustrophobic the physical space or the minds of his listeners, Emerson's reflections opened onto vistas of spirit that