1849 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. Lectures and Addresses on Nature. First Edition with Superb Provenance.

A generally well-preserved copy of the first edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson's classic on the role of man in the world, on the "method of nature," transcendentalism, etc.,  And this copy with very fine provenance, crisply signed and dated on the blank ffep, "Chas D. B. Mills, Elyria, March. 1850. No. 280" Charles De Berard Mills (C. D. B. Mills, 1821–1900) was a prominent figure in the abolitionist movement, and later in the freethought movement, influenced in large part by Emerson and others. He was born in New Hartford, New York, to Abram Mills and his wife, Grace De Berard Mills. Abram Mills was himself an ardent abolitionist, an early graduate of the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, a Presbyterian manual labor college founded in 1827 that had religiously liberal leanings. Young Charles Mills attended the Oneida Institute as his father had; by that time, the Institute was led by abolitionist firebrand Beriah Green, who accepted a large number of African American students and held clas