How Ralph Waldo Emerson Influenced Leonard Read

Leonard Read was an astute observer of coercive political panaceas. And he frequently started his rebuttals by citing Ralph Waldo Emerson: Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed." As we approach Emerson's May 25 birthday, it is worth noting how his argument blooms in Read's hands.