Daily Quiz for August 21, 2008

Ralph Waldo Emerson. Oliver Wendell Holmes referred to a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 as &#171our intellectual Declaration of Independence.» Emerson, a philosopher and author born in Boston on May 25, 1803, gave the speech, entitled &#171The American Scholar,» to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard. It called for an indigenous national culture and defined the functions of the intellectual in the light of Transcendentalism. He urged the mottoes: &#171Know Thyself» and &#171Study Nature.» In 1838 Emerson's address to the Harvard Divinity School criticized orthodox Christianity and led to accusations that he was an atheist. It was 30 years before he was invited again to speak at Harvard. He died on April 27, 1882.