Compensation

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About this book

The essay questions a sermon whose preacher assumed that judgment does not take place in the present world, that the wicked succeed and that the good are miserable. The preacher urged, from reason and Scripture, that compensation would be made to both parties in the next life. The essay asks what the preacher meant by the misery of the good and whether compensation means receiving the material gratifications enjoyed by unprincipled people.

The essay argues that every opinion reacts on the person who expresses it, comparing an opinion to a thrown thread-ball whose other end remains with the thrower. The account of personal change describes an outward biography that puts off dead circumstances as a person renews clothing day by day.

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity.