Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the above lines, outlined a seemingly conventional version of the meaning of “Progress,” based on Charles Lyell's historical geology, and dynamic applications of other sciences, on economic and industrial frontiers. The underlying metaphysic of the poem was one of constant change, represented by exploration, invention, and cycles of boom and bust. Overwhelmingly pervasive attitudes of commercial exuberance and industrial euphoria prepared Emerson and his contemporaries to think of progresss and change as normal conditions of the universe. Emerson was born during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, whose contrasting metaphysic defined progress very differently, as movement toward a more perfect understanding of self-evident and stable truths – the unalterable laws of nature and nature's God.