Miller Gives Lecture On Authors at Yale

Perry Miller, professor of American Literature, delivered a Bergen Lecture at Yale last Friday. Tracing the European background of American 19th century literature, he titled his lecture "Nature and the National Ego."

Concentrating on Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman, Miller emphasized their inner turmoil resulting from the influence of the German philosophers. Their school, originating with Rousseau, condemned superficial society and stressed the role of the mind in nature. The lecture closed with a comparison of today's problems with those of 19th century philosophers.