Endings Summary and Analysis

In Endings: Chapter 94: Memory, memory becomes important to Emerson; he sees it as a key to both the future and the past. The general course of his life changes, and his last twenty-five years are punctuated by a series of endings. Many changes take place in Emerson's personal life, the lives of his friends, and the country at large. Emerson is impatient to read Darwin's "The Origin of Species."

In Endings: Chapter 95: Civil War. Death of Thoreau, the Civil War begins; Emerson disapproves of a war solely for the purpose of saving the Union. He mostly gives talks about non-war subjects, including one on old age. He meets Lincoln and is surprised by how impressed he was by this man. His relationship with Thoreau is revisited. Emerson is thrilled by the Emancipation Proclamation.

In Endings: Chapter 96: Terminus, Emerson has become a...