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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 22
1,400 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 22 of 30.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
A vibrant, panoramic snapshot of mid-nineteenth-century intellectual life, capturing the era’s literary ambitions, social tensions, and the restless, inquisitive spirit of the American mind on the brink of profound change.

The Champagne Standard
Lane, John, Mrs.
This collection of essays serves as a sharp-eyed critique of early 20th-century social pretensions, exploring the hollow rituals of status and the domestic absurdities found in both England and America.

A Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin
A. Woodward
This work functions as an intense, reactionary polemic written in 1853, serving as a direct rebuttal to the antislavery sentiments sweeping the United States at the time.

An Appeal to the British Nation on the Humanity and Policy of Forming a National Institution for the Preservation of Lives and Property from Shipwreck (1825)
Hillary, William, Sir
Driven by the frequent, harrowing loss of life along the British coast, this earnest appeal proposes the creation of a unified, national organization to save shipwrecked mariners and protect stranded property.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine
Various
A vibrant, unpredictable mosaic of mid-19th-century British thought, this volume captures the fierce political, literary, and social debates of an era in constant, restless transition.

Conversation: Its Faults and Its Graces
Unknown
Language is a moral instrument, and the manner of our daily speech reveals the state of our hearts. This collection of nineteenth-century addresses and instructional guides serves as a manual for cultivating grace, precision, and kindness in the art of conversation.

Lectures and Essays
Goldwin Smith
A collection of incisive intellectual inquiries, these essays dissect the moral foundations of history, the evolution of human society, and the enduring tension between individual conscience and the inexorable pull of political power.

Patrins: To Which Is Added an Inquirendo Into the Wit & Other Good Parts of His Late Majesty King Charles the Second
Louise Imogen Guiney
HOOK A series of whimsical, erudite essays wandering through the "thought-country" of late nineteenth-century reflection, finding grace in historical curiosities, forgotten ruins, and the enduring charm of a wayward English king.

The Witch Doctor and other Rhodesian Studies
Frank Worthington
The landscape of colonial-era Rhodesia serves as the stage for a collection of sharp, observational vignettes exploring the collision of disparate cultures and the eccentricities of life on the frontier.

An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
Angelina Emily Grimké
This resonant call to moral action challenges the silence of the privileged, urging women to recognize their power to dismantle systemic injustice through the force of conscience and individual witness.

Ginger-Snaps
Fanny Fern
These sketches offer a sharp-tongued, spirited guide to mid-19th-century American life, proving that a little bit of ginger is the best cure for a dull or overly polite society.

Summer
Dallas Lore Sharp
Nature is not a distant spectacle to be observed through glass, but a living, breathing presence waiting just outside the threshold of our daily lives.

The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, November 1864
Unknown
This collection of essays and documents offers a window into the intellectual and spiritual preoccupations of the mid-nineteenth-century Irish Catholic Church. It serves as both a historical record and a forum for theological discourse.

Addresses: by John A. Martin. Delivered in Kansas
John Alexander Martin
The rapid, hard-won transformation of a turbulent frontier territory into a prosperous, law-abiding American state is captured here through the immediate, urgent rhetoric of one of its most dedicated public servants.

Elements of Criticism, Volume II
Kames, Henry Home, Lord
The study of human nature is the essential prerequisite for true critical judgment, as the quality of our perceptions dictates the standard by which we measure art, behavior, and the dignity of the human spirit.

How to Do It
Edward Everett Hale
Learning how to move through the world with grace, intention, and competence is a skill that can be cultivated. This collection of essays serves as a practical guide for young people—and the young at heart—on how to master the mundane and significant tasks of daily existence.

Lectures on Russian Literature: Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenef, Tolstoy
Ivan Panin
The soul strives heavenward through literature, and these lectures serve as milestones on that path, tracing how the intensity of the Russian spirit blazed forth to deliver a message of profound sincerity, earnestness, and love.

State of the Union Addresses
Abraham Lincoln
These addresses chronicle a nation’s existential struggle, mapping the transformation of a fractured, war-torn republic into a unified entity through the force of political will and administrative perseverance.

The Gospel of the Pentateuch: A Set of Parish Sermons
Charles Kingsley
Faith in the living God is not a stagnant tradition, but a dynamic, unfolding education that begins in the earliest chapters of scripture and finds its ultimate expression in the life of Christ.

Armenian Literature: Comprising Poetry, Drama, Folk-lore and Classic Traditions;: Translated into English for the First Time
Robert Arnot
The enduring spirit of an ancient culture survives in this collection of stories, dramas, and proverbs, offering a window into the life, humor, and resilient soul of a long-suffering people.

The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1876: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Literature, History, Antiquities, Folk Lore, Traditions, and the Social and Material Interests of the Celt at Home and Abroad
Various
The history, folklore, and cultural identity of the Scottish Highlands emerge through the lens of nineteenth-century scholarship and tradition, documenting a world defined by its vanishing past.

The Curse of Education
Harold Edward Gorst
Modern schooling acts as a mechanical press, flattening unique human minds into a uniform, mediocre shape. By forcing children into a rigid, one-size-fits-all curriculum, society systematically destroys individual genius and prepares youth for lives of frustration and incompetence.

The Double Garden
Maurice Maeterlinck
The act of paying close attention to the world—to a dog, a flower, or a machine—is the surest way to bridge the gap between our fragile individual existence and the mysterious forces that govern us.

The shield
Avrahm Yarmolinsky
This collection of essays and narratives serves as a powerful testament to the moral urgency of the Russian intelligentsia, arguing that the nation’s survival depends on the urgent dismantling of state-sanctioned anti-Jewish discrimination.

Unity of Good
Mary Baker Eddy
This foundational work explores the radical proposition that God is entirely good and therefore unconscious of sin, sickness, or death. It challenges the reader to reject material evidence in favor of a spiritual understanding of existence.

From a College Window
Arthur Christopher Benson
Reflective and serene, these essays offer a meditation on how to navigate the complexities of life with sincerity, intellectual honesty, and grace.

Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount
These collected epistles offer a sharp, polemical defense of a disgraced statesman’s reputation and a series of philosophical meditations on the limits of human knowledge.

Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose
Mrs. (Anna Letitia) Barbauld
True intellectual curiosity requires both the rigor to pursue abstract truths and the sensitivity to appreciate the nuances of human experience. This collection offers a bracing, thoughtful companion for those who value clarity of thought.

Practical Talks by an Astronomer
Harold Jacoby
This collection of essays offers a clear, accessible window into the mechanics of the heavens, written for the curious layperson who prefers genuine science over technical jargon.

The Arnold Bennett Calendar
Arnold Bennett
A daily companion for the mind, this collection offers a year of sharp, pragmatic reflections on literature, human nature, and the rigorous discipline required to truly live.

The Claims of Labour: An essay on the duties of the employers to the employed
Helps, Arthur, Sir
Great change is never achieved through abstract theories or grand political gestures alone, but rather through the quiet, persistent practice of duty by those who hold power over the lives of others.

The Interdependence of Literature
Georgina Pell Curtis
This survey traces the hidden threads connecting the world’s great literary traditions, revealing how ancient myths and moral tales flowed across continents to shape the collective consciousness of humanity.

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 3, part 1: Andrew Jackson (Second Term)
Unknown
The second administration of Andrew Jackson serves as a defining crucible for American executive power, charting a turbulent course through banking, international diplomacy, and the forced displacement of native populations.

Are You a Bromide?: The Sulphitic Theory Expounded and Exemplified According to the Most Recent Researches into the Psychology of Boredom, Including Many Well-Known Bromidioms Now in Use
Gelett Burgess
The divide between those who repeat the obvious and those who think for themselves is not just a matter of personality, but a fundamental fault line running through the heart of human society.

Chats on Angling
H. V. Hart-Davis
This collection of observations serves as an intimate guide for the dedicated angler, blending technical advice with the quiet, persistent philosophy of life by the riverside.

How It Feels to Be Fifty
Ellis Parker Butler
Life at fifty is not the descent into a quiet valley that society suggests, but rather the exhilarating start of a new, more capable chapter of existence. Age is merely a number that holds no power over a mind fully committed to the work and play ahead.

Love's Coming-of-Age: A series of papers on the relations of the sexes
Edward Carpenter
This work examines the stifling impact of Victorian social conventions on human connection, arguing that true intimacy requires sexual honesty, economic equality, and the abandonment of possessive marriage models.

Post mortem: Essays, historical and medical
C. (Charles) MacLaurin
Great figures of history are often framed by the myths they inspire, yet they were first and foremost physical beings governed by the frailties of the human body. This collection of essays examines the intersection of high-stakes historical events and the often-overlooked medical conditions that may have shaped the…

The Crown of Thorns: A Token for the Sorrowing
E. H. (Edwin Hubbell) Chapin
Finding comfort in the face of life’s most difficult transitions requires a shift in perspective. This collection of discourses offers a framework for navigating loss and disappointment through the lens of Christian hope.

Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 418: Volume 17, New Series, January 3, 1852
Various
A simple kite tethered in a breathless blue sky becomes a mirror for the human imagination, sparking inquiries that range from ancient toys to the future of aerial flight. This collection of essays and observations captures the restless intellectual spirit of the mid-nineteenth century.

American Addresses, with a Lecture on the Study of Biology
Thomas Henry Huxley
The mind of the scientist acts as a lantern, casting illumination upon the hidden mechanisms of the natural world. This collection of lectures serves as an essential guide for navigating the profound shifts in biological understanding.

Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion"
J. B. (Joseph Barber) Lightfoot
This collection of scholarly essays defends the historical credibility of early Christian records against the skeptical challenges posed by 19th-century critics. It serves as a rigorous, point-by-point examination of the foundations of the New Testament.

How Shakspere Came to Write the Tempest
Rudyard Kipling
The enchantment of the stage is often born not from high-flown inspiration, but from the gritty, prosaic observations of daily life. This investigation reveals how the most iconic works of literature emerge from the most unlikely and mundane origins.

Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Orson Spencer
HOOK This work serves as a formal defense of a burgeoning American faith, written by a former Baptist clergyman to explain why he abandoned traditional orthodoxy for the teachings of a new prophet.

State of the Union Addresses
Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines) Johnson
These annual reports to Congress trace the evolution of a nation navigating domestic transformation and the mounting pressures of an overseas conflict. They serve as a primary record of a presidency defined by both ambitious social reform and the deepening shadows of the Vietnam War.

The Friendly Club and Other Portraits
Francis Parsons
A collection of quiet, observant sketches that breathes life into the forgotten figures of early Connecticut history. These portraits capture the fading echoes of a literary and social world that once defined the American spirit.

Vignettes of San Francisco
Almira Morey
This collection of evocative prose sketches captures the spirit of a city caught between its frontier heritage and the dawn of the machine age. With a keen eye for the peculiar, the author maps the soul of San Francisco through its bustling markets, fog-drenched mornings, and the quiet dignity of its diverse…

Walking-Stick Papers
Robert Cortes Holliday
A wandering, inquisitive mind captures the small, overlooked curiosities of daily life in these lighthearted, observant essays. They transform the mundane—a walk down the street or a stroll past a shop window—into a deliberate, meditative art.