Tablets   By: Amos Bronson Alcott

by

A. BRONSON ALCOTT

"For curious method expect none, essays for the most part not being placed as at a feast, but placing themselves as at an ordinary." Thomas Fuller.

Boston Roberts Brothers 1868.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by A. Bronson Alcott, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Electrotyped and Printed by Alfred Mudge & Son, No. 34 School St., Boston.

CONTENTS.

BOOK I. PRACTICAL.

I. THE GARDEN. PAGE.

1 Antiquity 5

2 Ornaments 11

3 Pleasures 14

4 Orchard 20

5 Sweet Herbs 25

6 Table Plants 28

7 Rations 36

8 Economies 41

9 Rural Culture 48

II. RECREATION.

1 The Fountains 59

2 The Cheap Physician 65

III. FELLOWSHIP.

1 Hospitality 69

2 Conversation 75

IV. FRIENDSHIP.

1 Persons 81

2 Woman 88

3 Family 92

4 Children 95

V. CULTURE.

1 Modern Teaching 103

2 Socratic Dialectic 108

3 Pythagorean Discipline 113

4 Mother Tongue 118

VI. BOOKS. 127

VII. COUNSELS.

1 Religious 139

2 Personal 145

3 Political 148

4 Soul's Errand 151

BOOK II. SPECULATIVE.

I. INSTRUMENTALITIES.

1 Tendencies 159

2 Method 162

3 Man 166

II. MIND.

1 Ideas 173

2 The Gifts 179

3 Person 181

4 Choice 184

III. GENESIS.

1 Vestiges 189

2 Serpent Symbol 191

3 Embryons 193

4 Temperament 195

IV. METAMORPHOSES.

1 Sleep 201

2 Reminiscence 203

3 Immortality 205

TABLETS

BOOK I

PRACTICAL

"Philosophy, the formatrix of judgment and manners, has the privilege of having a hand in everything." MONTAIGNE.

I.

THE GARDEN.

"If Eden be on earth at all, 'Tis that which we the country call." HENRY VAUGHAN.

[Illustration: Decorative banner of bird among grapes and leaves]

THE GARDEN

I. ANTIQUITY.