Self-Culture: A Lecture to Young Men

New York: New-York Young Men's Christian Association, 1864. First edition. Stab-stiched small 8vo with pasted wraps; 30, (2) pp. Near Fine. A lecture originally prepared for the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1860 and delivered again in New York in 1863. Attractively printed wrap and promotion for the YMCA on the last leaf. Targeted toward young adult men: "The idea of self is either full of danger or full of duty, according to our conception of it. The abused or perverted self is but an egotism of idolatry and selfishness. It is the ripe fruit of human depravity, the motive to every injustice, the symbol of all unfairness and oppression. This self is its own god; on its unhallowed altar the whole world is not too much to burn. What outrage, what cruelty, what heaven-provoking crime has not been committed under the low inspiration of serving self! On the other hand, the true idea of self, with which alone we wish to deal, is quite another thing..."