Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Divinity School Address” (15 July 1838)

Authentication Materials:

  1. Speech title as it is to be printed: “Divinity School Address.”
  2. Exact date and place of speech delivery: 15 July 1838. Cambridge, MA.
  3. Full name of speaker, with year of birth and year of death: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).
  4. Full name of editor of electronic text: Eric C. Miller.
  5. Date of electronic edition: Spring 2025.
  6. Languages: English (100%).
  7. Indication of editorial functions performed: Eric C. Miller transcribed and proofread the speech text published by James Munroe and Company in 1838.

Bibliographic List of Sources:

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. An Address Delivered Before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Evening, 15 July, 1838. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1838. [=A]

Statement of Editorial Procedures:

This unit relies on a transcript of Emerson’s speech published by James Munroe and Company in 1838, copy-text A [=A]. Emerson published other works with James Munroe and Company and this version was published shortly after Emerson’s July speech. While we cannot know if copy-text A was exactly what Emerson delivered, we infer that this version is the copy he wanted published. Other versions of this speech text exist, but the 1838 version [=A] was published first and with a publisher Emerson often used.

Copy-text A was used for grammar, punctuation, quotations, italics, capitalization, and paragraphing. Extra spaces between words and before punctuation were removed for readability.

Paragraph numbers were added in square brackets.

The text of this edition has been thoroughly checked and proofread.

All double quotation marks are rendered with “, all single quotation marks with apostrophe ‘.

This copy text is not subject to end-of-line hyphenation.

Special characters and characters with diachronic marks: none.

Two spellings were changed to enhance the clarity of the speech text. The departures from the copy-text and general editorial procedures are as follows. Numbers indicate the paragraph where the change occurred.

30 “connexion” became “connection”

32 “connexion” became “connection”