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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 18
1,906 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 18 of 40.
Rough Ways Made Smooth: A series of familiar essays on scientific subjects
Richard A. (Richard Anthony) Proctor
This collection of essays serves as a Victorian-era bridge between the specialized laboratory and the parlor, translating the complexities of late-19th-century scientific discovery into accessible, thoughtful prose for the inquisitive layperson.
Signs of Change
William Morris
Change is not a polite suggestion, but a fundamental necessity for a society built on the unequal exchange of human labor. This collection of essays argues that the current industrial system is a decaying relic, destined to be replaced by a new social order of fellowship.
Suffrage snapshots
Ida Husted Harper
The quest for the ballot is not merely a political struggle; it is a lively, ongoing dialogue filled with wit, tenacity, and the inevitable friction of social change.
The Profession of Journalism: A Collection of Articles on Newspaper Editing and Publishing, Taken From the Atlantic Monthly
Unknown
Journalism is an ongoing negotiation between public trust and private profit, where the editor must balance the survival of the business with the moral duty to report the truth.
Women's Wild Oats: Essays on the Re-fixing of Moral Standards
C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley
This series of essays confronts the moral disorientation of post-WWI England, arguing that women must reject individualistic egoism in favor of a new, disciplined dedication to the welfare of their children and the state.
Essays on things
William Lyon Phelps
Observations on the mundane and the magnificent often reveal more about the human condition than formal philosophy. A seasoned observer finds the pulse of life in everything from morning coffee to the mystery of the skylark.
Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays
John Tyndall
This collection of lectures and essays serves as a window into the intellectual fermentation of the nineteenth century, capturing the moment when the physical sciences began to fundamentally reshape humanity’s understanding of its own origins and nature.
"I Believe" and other essays
Guy Thorne
A collection of Edwardian essays that critiques modern society through a fiercely orthodox lens. These polemics challenge the reader to reconcile their personal conduct with the demands of Christian faith and traditional duty.
Studies from Court and Cloister: being essays, historical and literary dealing mainly with subjects relating to the XVIth and XVIIth centuries
J. M. (Jean Mary) Stone
This collection of historical and literary essays offers a meticulous, scholarly window into the religious and political upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With a clear focus on the shifting landscape of faith, it challenges long-held narratives regarding the Reformation in England and abroad.
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell
Unknown
These are the voices of the pulpit’s most formidable architects, charting the intersection of the finite human spirit and the infinite demands of the divine.
An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance
John Foster
Ignorance is not merely a lack of information; it is a profound moral catastrophe that blinds society to its own potential and perpetuates unnecessary human suffering. This urgent analysis examines the systemic failure to educate the masses, arguing that the true cost of neglected minds is a civilization that…
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846
Various
HOOK This collection captures the mid-Victorian intellectual spirit, blending rugged Highland travelogues, literary criticism, and serialized romantic fiction into a singular window into the 1846 British world.
Four Early Pamphlets
William Godwin
This collection of early essays captures a sharp, burgeoning intellect navigating the turbulent political and intellectual currents of the late eighteenth century. These writings offer a vivid window into the rhetorical strategies and ideological commitments of a young radical finding his voice.
Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers
Unknown
This collection gathers the forgotten corners of legal history, tracing how societies have defined justice from the ancient world to the nineteenth century. It reveals a past where law was often inseparable from superstition, ritual, and local caprice.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 78, April, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This volume serves as a time capsule from the mid-nineteenth century, capturing the intellectual pulse of a nation deeply embroiled in the Civil War while simultaneously grappling with the foundations of history, science, and social decorum.
The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland
Norah
A traveler from Canada crosses the Atlantic to document the profound distress of the Irish peasantry and the volatile political climate of a nation caught between eviction and rebellion.
The Principal Speeches and Addresses of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort
Albert, Prince Consort, consort of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain
A dedicated public servant, this collection chronicles a life defined by earnest intellectual rigor, a profound commitment to social improvement, and the quiet, persistent pursuit of national progress through duty and reason.
Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 4, April, 1886
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical offers a wide-ranging, devotional, and political window into the Irish-American experience of 1886. It captures the intersection of faith, heritage, and the burgeoning social concerns of the late nineteenth century.
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, May 1885
Various
The Victorian era was a time of boundless curiosity, and this collection captures the intellectual pulse of the year 1885 through a wide-angle lens of global discourse.
Letters from the Cape
Duff Gordon, Lucie, Lady
A fragile traveler seeks health in the distant sunshine of the Cape, finding a vibrant, complex world that challenges the rigid boundaries of her Victorian sensibilities.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 59, September, 1862: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
The spirit of a nation at war defines these pages, capturing a fragile, flickering moment of American life amidst the profound uncertainty of the Civil War.
The works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., Vol. 2 (of 6)
George Whitefield
Across thousands of miles, a tireless preacher details his relentless journey to share his faith, revealing the intense, singular devotion of an eighteenth-century evangelist in his own words.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine
Various
This collection of essays and narratives offers a vivid, multifaceted window into the intellectual preoccupations and political anxieties of the Victorian era. It serves as a sprawling, authoritative snapshot of 1843, capturing the pulse of an expanding British Empire.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 353, March 1845
Various
This issue of a venerable Victorian monthly captures the intellectual pulse of 1845, blending high-minded literary critique with the practical anxieties of a rapidly industrializing empire.
Cobwebs of Thought
Arachne
HOOK This collection of philosophical essays explores the tension between individual identity and the collective human experience, using the lives and works of great thinkers to probe the limits of self-knowledge.
The Galaxy, Volume 23, No. 2, February, 1877
Various
This historical snapshot captures the intellectual pulse of 1877, blending sharp political analysis of the Lincoln era with the era’s fascination for the uncanny, the scientific, and the literary.
Historical Lectures and Essays
Charles Kingsley
Great history is not merely the recitation of dry facts, but the courageous exploration of human character and the relentless pursuit of truth across the centuries. These pages offer a series of portraits—scholars, monarchs, and visionaries—whose lives exemplify the eternal struggle between individual conscience…
The Book of This and That
Robert Lynd
The world is full of odd corners, and this collection of essays invites you to peer into them with a mixture of sharp wit, deep empathy, and an unapologetic penchant for wandering.
A year of prophesying
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
The future belongs to those who dare to imagine a unified world, yet the present remains stubbornly trapped in the cage of competing nationalisms. These essays serve as a bold, urgent wake-up call for an age drifting toward catastrophe.
Children's Rights: A Book of Nursery Logic
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
The child is a citizen of the present, not merely a future adult, and deserves a world designed for their stature. True education begins not with books, but with the sanctity of play.
Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness
Henry Van Dyke
This collection of essays serves as an extended invitation to step away from the relentless pace of modern life and find restoration through the quiet, deliberate practice of angling in the world’s hidden waterways.
Pearls & Parasites
Shipley, A. E. (Arthur Everett), Sir
HOOK This collection of essays explores the hidden biological machinery of the natural world, from the life cycles of pearl-bearing oysters to the microscopic origins of tropical disease.
Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays
Charles Kingsley
The nineteenth century was a period of frantic industrial growth, but one observer argued that Britain’s true strength depended less on steam power than on the physical and moral health of its citizens.
Dante: Six Sermons
Philip H. (Philip Henry) Wicksteed
This volume offers a series of sermons delivered from the pulpit, providing a thoughtful, accessible gateway into the life and moral vision of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
Friends on the Shelf
Bradford Torrey
A quiet, contemplative invitation to explore the lives and legacies of literary figures, this volume celebrates the profound and sustaining friendship found between a reader and the books upon their shelves.
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 04
Unknown
The American Revolution was won not only on the battlefield but through a grueling, precarious marathon of international diplomacy. These pages reveal the intimate mechanics of how a fragile new republic secured its standing among the empires of the world.
An old master, and other political essays
Woodrow Wilson
This collection of essays serves as a meditation on the nature of governance, urging readers to look past the cold text of constitutions to the living, breathing habits of the people they serve.
Five Young Men: Messages of Yesterday for the Young Men of To-day
Charles Reynolds Brown
These addresses provide a timeless guide for young men, using biblical figures to illustrate the moral challenges of leadership, integrity, and faith in a world demanding strength of character.
Prose Fancies
Richard Le Gallienne
A gentle, wandering collection of essays, this work serves as a meditation on the beauty of the mundane and the absurdity of taking oneself too seriously. It captures the quiet, impressionistic spirit of late Victorian literary life.
State of the Union Addresses
Harry S. Truman
These addresses chronicle the pivotal transition of the United States from a nation weary from global conflict to the primary architect of a new, postwar international order.
The Library
Andrew Lang
The bibliophile’s pursuit is a quiet, scholarly sport, a lifelong hunt for rare editions and beautiful bindings that connects the modern reader to the intellectual giants of the past. It is a gentle defense of the collector’s obsession, treating books not as mere objects, but as living artifacts of human history…
Tom Watson's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 2, April 1905
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, combative artifact of early twentieth-century American populism, blending urgent political editorials with serialized fiction. It functions as both a manifesto for radical reform and a platform for the literary tastes of a bygone era.
What's What in America
Eugene V. (Eugene Valentine) Brewster
This eclectic survey of American life and thought captures the restless spirit of the early 20th century, blending social commentary with earnest, if sometimes idiosyncratic, proposals for national reform.
Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
A gentle collection of moral reflections and stories designed to offer solace to those facing the inevitable trials of life, teaching that faith turns every shadow into a path toward peace.
A Hero and Some Other Folks
William A. (William Alfred) Quayle
Heroism is not a luxury, but a necessity, as essential to the human spirit as the sky is to the earth. Through a collection of reflective essays, the reader is invited to contemplate the lives of legendary figures and the enduring power of literature to reveal the divine in the human.
Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. 2, No. 6: December, 1897
Various
This collection invites readers to look beyond the common sparrow to the vibrant, complex lives of birds, blending scientific observation with the genuine wonder of the nineteenth-century naturalist.
On Nothing & Kindred Subjects
Hilaire Belloc
A man sets out to write about Nothing and discovers, in the process, that he has instead written about everything that truly matters. This journey through the ephemeral is a meditation on the beauty of endings.
The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 2
Demosthenes
The ancient world’s most relentless voice warns a dying democracy that silence is not peace, and that liberty survives only through the active, often painful, defense of one’s own borders.