This 1886 collection of public addresses by Lowell features nine speeches, including "Democracy," a lecture given at Lowell's assumption of the Presidency of the Birmingham and Midland Institute; "Books and Libraries," given at the opening of the Free Public Library in Chelsea, Massachusetts; "Coleridge;" "Wordsworth;" and "Don Quixote;" among others. According to a contemporary review in the Nation, "in this volume there is the authentic impress of the classical spirit—age seasons every page, and yet every page is young."