Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Title: Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Editor: David Widger

Release date: March 1, 2019 [eBook #58994]
Most recently updated: July 6, 2019

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58994

Credits: Produced by David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDEX OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG WORKS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON ***

INDEX OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG

WORKS OF

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Compiled by David Widger

CONTENTS

Click on the ## before many of the titles to view a linked
table of contents for that volume.

Click on the title itself to open the original online file.

##  ESSAYS, FIRST SERIES

##  ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES

##  REPRESENTATIVE MEN

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON, V1

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON, V2

MAY-DAY AND OTHER PIECES

##  ESSAYS

##  NATURE

##  THE CONDUCT OF LIFE

##  ENGLISH TRAITS

TABLES OF CONTENTS OF VOLUMES

ESSAYS, FIRST SERIES

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

CONTENTS

I | HISTORY
II | SELF-RELIANCE
III | COMPENSATION
IV | SPIRITUAL LAWS
V | LOVE
VI | FRIENDSHIP
VII | PRUDENCE
VIII | HEROISM
IX | THE OVER-SOUL
X | CIRCLES
XI | INTELLECT
XII | ART

ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

CONTENTS

I | THE POET
II | EXPERIENCE
III | CHARACTER
IV | MANNERS
V | GIFTS
VI | NATURE
VII | POLITICS
VIII | NONIMALIST AND REALIST
NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS

REPRESENTATIVE MEN

SEVEN LECTURES

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

CONTENTS

I | USES OF GREAT MEN
II | PLATO; OR, THE PHILOSOPHER
III | SWEDENBORG; OR, THE MYSTIC
IV | MONTAIGNE; OR, THE SKEPTIC
V | SHAKSPEARE; OR, THE POET
VI | NAPOLEON; OR, THE MAN OF THE WORLD
VII | GOETHE; OR, THE WRITER

ESSAYS

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

CONTENTS

Introduction | Page
Life of Emerson | 5
Critical Opinions | 11
Chronological List of Principal Works | 17
The American Scholar | 19
Compensation | 49
Self Reliance | 79
Friendship | 117
Heroism | 139
Manners | 156
Gifts | 187
Nature | 193
Shakespeare; or, the Poet | 217
Prudence | 243
Circles | 260
Notes | 279

NOTES

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR

[1] Games of strength. The public games of Greece were athletic and intellectual contests of various kinds. There were four of importance: the Olympic, held every four years; the Pythian, held every third Olympic year; and the Nemean and Isthmian, held alternate years between the Olympic periods. These great national festivals exercised a strong influence in Greece. They were a secure bond of union between the numerous independent states and did much to help the nation to repel its foreign invaders. In Greece the accomplished athlete was reverenced almost as a god, and cases have been recorded where altars were erected and sacrifices made in his honor. The extreme care and cultivation of the body induced by this national spirit is one of the most significant features of Greek culture, and one which might wisely be imitated in the modern world.

[2] Troubadours. In southern France during the eleventh century, wandering poets went from castle to castle reciting or singing love-songs, composed in the old Provençal dialect, a sort of vulgarized Latin. The life in the great feudal chateaux was so dull that the lords and ladies seized with avidity any amusement which promised to while away an idle hour. The troubadours were made much of and became a strong element in the development of the Southern spirit. So-called Courts of Love were formed where questions of an amorous nature were discussed in all their bearings; learned opinions were expressed on the most trivial matters, and offenses were tried.

Some of the Provençal poetry is of the highest artistic significance, though the mass of it is worthless high-flown trash.

[3] At the time this oration was delivered (1837), many of the authors who have since given America a place in the world's literature were young men writing their first books. "We were," says James Russell Lowell, "still socially and intellectually moored to English thought, till Emerson cut the cable and gave us a chance at the dangers and glories of blue water."

[4] Pole-star. Polaris is now the nearest conspicuous star to the north pole of the celestial equator. Owing to the motion of the pole of the celestial equator around that of the ecliptic, this star will in course of time recede from its proud position, and the brilliant star Vega in the constellation Harp will become the pole-star.

[5] It is now a well-recognized fact in the development of animal life that as any part of the body falls into disuse it in time disappears. Good examples of this are the disappearance of powerful fangs from the mouth of man, the loss of power in the wings of barnyard fowls; and, vice versa, as new uses for a member arise, its structure changes to meet the new needs. An example of this is the transformation from the hoof of a horse through the cloven hoofs of the cow to the eventual development of highly expert fingers in the monkey and man. Emerson assumed the doctrine of evolution to be sufficiently established by the anatomical evidence of gradual development. In his own words: "Man is no up-start in the creation. His limbs are only a more exquisite organization—say rather the finish—of the rudimental forms that have been already sweeping the sea and creeping in the mud. The brother of his hand is even now cleaving the arctic sea in the fin of the whale, and innumerable ages since was pawing the marsh in the flipper of the saurian." A view afterwards condensed into his memorable couplet:

"Striving to be man, the worm
Mounts through all the spires of form."

[6] Stint. A prescribed or allotted task, a share of labor.

[7] Ridden. Here used in the sense of dominated.

[8] Monitory pictures. Instructive warning pictures.

[9] The Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus is the author of this saying, not "the old oracle." It occurs in the Encheiridion, or manual, a work put together by a pupil of Epictetus. The original saying of Epictetus is as follows: "Every thing has two handles, the one by which it may be borne, the other by which it may not. If your brother acts unjustly, do not lay hold of the act by that handle wherein he acts unjustly, for this is the handle which cannot be borne: but lay hold of the other, that he is your brother, that he was nurtured with you, and you will lay hold of the thing by that handle by which it can be borne."

[10] Every day, the sun (shines).

[11] Beholden. Emerson here uses this past participle with its original meaning instead of in its present sense of "indebted."

[12] Here we have a reminder of Emerson's pantheism. He means the inexplicable continuity "of what I call God, and fools nature," as Browning expressed it.

[13] His expanding knowledge will become a creator.

[14] Know thyself. Plutarch ascribes this saying to Plato. It is also ascribed to Pythagoras, Chilo, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, and Socrates; also to Phemonië, a mythical Greek poetess of the ante-Homeric period. Juvenal (Satire XI. 27) says that this precept descended from heaven. "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much" were inscribed upon the Delphic oracle.

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man."

[15] Observe the brisk movement of these sentences. How they catch and hold the attention, giving a new impulse to the reader's interest!

[16] Nature abhors a vacuum.

[17] Noxious. Harmful.

[18] John Locke (1632-1704), an English philosopher whose work was of especial significance in the development of modern philosophy. The work he is best known by is the exhaustive "Essay on the Human Understanding," in which he combated the theory of Descartes, that every man has certain "innate ideas." The innate-idea theory was first proved by the philosopher Descartes in this way. Descartes began his speculations from a standpoint of absolute doubt. Then he said, "I think, therefore I am," and from this formula he built up a number of ideas innate to the human mind, ideas which we cannot but hold. Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding" did much to discredit Descartes' innate ideas, which had been very generally accepted in Europe before.

[19] Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, Viscount Saint Alban's (1561-1626), a famous English statesman and philosopher. He occupied high public offices, but in 1621 was convicted of taking bribes in his office of Lord Chancellor. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to imprisonment and a fine of forty thousand pounds. Both these sentences were remitted, however. In the seventeenth century, judicial corruption was so common that Bacon's offence was not considered so gross as it would now be. As a philosopher Bacon's rank has been much disputed. While some claim that to his improved method of studying nature are chiefly to be attributed the prodigious strides taken by modern science, others deny him all merit in this respect. His best known works are: "The Novum Organum," a philosophical treatise; "The Advancement of Learning," a remarkable argument in favor of scholarship; and the short essays on subjects of common interest, usually printed under the simple title "Bacon's Essays."

[20] Third Estate. The thirteenth century was the age when the national assemblies of most European countries were putting on their definite shape. In most of them the system of estates prevailed. These in most countries were three—nobles, clergy, and commons, the commons being the third estate. During the French Revolution the Third Estate, or Tiers Etat, asserted its rights and became a powerful factor in French politics, choosing its own leaders and effecting the downfall of its oppressors.

[21] Restorers of readings. Men who spend their lives trying to improve and correct the texts of classical authors, by comparing the old editions with each other and picking out the version which seem most in accordance with the authors' original work.

[22] Emendators. The same as restorers of readings.

[23] Bibliomaniacs. Men with a mania for collecting rare and beautiful books. Not a bad sort of mania, though Emerson never had any sympathy for it.

[24] To many readers Emerson's own works richly fulfill this obligation. He himself lived continually in such a lofty mental atmosphere that no one can come within the circle of his influence without being stimulated and elevated.

[25] Genius, the possession of a thoroughly active soul, ought not to be the special privilege of favorites of fortune, but the right of every sound man.

[26] They stunt my mental growth. A man should not accept another man's conclusions, but merely use them as steps on his upward path.

[27] If you do not employ such talent as you have in original labor, in bearing the mental fruit of which you are capable, then you do not vindicate your claim to a share in the divine nature.

[28] Disservice. Injury.

[29] In original composition of any sort our efforts naturally flow in the channels worn for us by the first dominating streams of early genius. The conventional is the continual foe of all true art.

[30] Emerson is continually stimulating us to look at things in new ways. Here, for instance, at once the thought comes: "Is it not perhaps possible that the transcendent genius of Shakespeare has been rather noxious than beneficent in its influence on the mind of the world? Has not the all-pervading Shakespearian influence flooded and drowned out a great deal of original genius?"

[31] That is,—when in his clear, seeing moments he can distil some drops of truth from the world about him, let him not waste his time in studying other men's records of what they have seen.

[32] While Emerson's verse is frequently unmusical, in his prose we often find passages like this instinct with the fairest poetry.

[33] Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). The father of English poetry. Chaucer's chief work is the "Canterbury Tales," a series of stories told by pilgrims traveling in company to Canterbury. Coleridge, the poet, wrote of Chaucer: "I take unceasing delight in Chaucer; his manly cheerfulness is especially delicious to me in my old age. How exquisitely tender he is, yet how free from the least touch of sickly melancholy or morbid drooping." Chaucer's poetry is above all things fresh. It breathes of the morning of literature. Like Homer he had at his command all the riches of a new language undefiled by usage from which to choose.

"Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,
On Fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled."

[34] Andrew Marvell (1620-1678). An eminent English patriot and satirist. As a writer he is chiefly known by his "Rehearsal Transposed," written in answer to a fanatical defender of absolute power. When a young man he was assistant to the poet Milton, who was then Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell. Marvell's wit and distinguished abilities rendered him formidable to the corrupt administration of Charles II., who attempted without success to buy his friendship. Emerson's literary perspective is a bit unusual when he speaks of Marvell as "one of the great English poets." Marvell hardly ranks with Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton.

[35] John Dryden (1631-1700). A celebrated English poet. Early in life he wrote almost entirely for the stage and achieved great success. In the latter part of his life, however, according to Macaulay, he "turned his powers in a new direction with success the most splendid and decisive. The first rank in poetry was beyond his reach, but he secured the most honorable place in the second.... With him died the secret of the old poetical diction of England,—the art of producing rich effects by familiar words."

[36] Plato (429-347 B.C.). One of the most illustrious philosophers of all time. Probably no other philosopher has contributed so much as Plato to the moral and intellectual training of the human race. This pre-eminence is due not solely to his transcendent intellect, but also in no small measure to his poetic power and to that unrivaled grace of style which led the ancients to say that if Jove should speak Greek he would speak like Plato. He was a remarkable example of that universal culture of body and mind which characterized the last period of ancient Greece. He was proficient in every branch of art and learning and was such a brilliant athlete that he contended in the Isthmian and Pythian games.

[37] Gowns. The black gown worn occasionally in America and always in England at the universities; the distinctive academic dress is a cap and gown.

[38] Pecuniary foundations. Gifts of money for the support of institutions of learning.

[39] Wit is here used in its early sense of intellect, good understanding.

[40] Valetudinarian. A person of a weak, sickly constitution.

[41] Mincing. Affected.

[42] Preamble. A preface or introduction.

[43] Dumb abyss. That vast immensity of the universe about us which we can never understand.

[44] I comprehend its laws; I lose my fear of it.

[45] Silkworms feed on mulberry-leaves. Emerson describes what science calls "unconscious cerebration."

[46] Ripe fruit. Emerson's ripe fruit found its way into his diary, where it lay until he needed it in the preparation of some lecture or essay.

[47] I. Corinthians xv. 53.

[48] Empyrean. The region of pure light and fire; the ninth heaven of ancient astronomy.

"The deep-domed empyrean
Rings to the roar of an angel onset."

[49] Ferules. According to the methods of education fifty years ago, it was quite customary for the teacher to punish a school-child with his ferule or ruler.

[50] Oliver Wendell Holmes cites this last sentence as the most extreme development of the distinctively Emersonian style. Such things must be read not too literally but rapidly, with alert attention to what the previous train of thought has been.

[51] Savoyards. The people of Savoy, south of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.

[52] Emerson's style is characterized by the frequent use of pithy epigrams like this.

[53] Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). A great English philosopher and mathematician. He is famous as having discovered the law of gravitation.

[54] Unhandselled. Uncultivated, without natural advantages. A handsel is a gift.

[55] Druids. The ancient priesthood of the Britons in Cæsar's time. They had immense power among these primitive peoples. They were the judges as well as the priests and decided all questions. It is believed that they made human sacrifices to their gods in the depths of the primeval forest, but not much is known of their rites.

[56] Berserkers. Berserker was a redoubtable hero in Scandinavian mythology, the grandson of the eight-handed Starkodder and the beautiful Alfhilde. He had twelve sons who inherited the wild-battle frenzy, or berserker rage. The sagas, the great Scandinavian epics, are full of stories of heroes who are seized with this fierce longing for battle, murder, and sudden death. The name means bear-shirt and has been connected with the old were-wolf tradition, the myth that certain people were able to change into man-devouring wolves with a wolfish mad desire to rend and kill.

[57] Alfred, surnamed the Great (848-901), king of the West Saxons in England. When he ascended the throne his country was in a deplorable condition from the repeated inroads of northern invaders. He eventually drove them out and established a secure government. England owes much to the efforts of Alfred. He not only fought his country's battles, but also founded schools, translated Latin books into his native tongue, and did much for the intellectual improvement of his people.

[58] The hoe and the spade. "In spite of Emerson's habit of introducing the names of agricultural objects into his writing ('Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood' is a line from one of his poems), his familiarity therewith is evidently not so great as he would lead one to imagine. 'Take care, papa,' cried his little son, seeing him at work with a spade, 'you will dig your leg.'"

[59] John Flamsteed (1646-1719). An eminent English astronomer. He appears to have been the first to understand the theory of the equation of time. He passed his life in patient observation and determined the position of 2884 stars.

[60] Sir William Herschel (1738-1822). One of the greatest astronomers that any age or nation has produced. Brought up to the profession of music, it was not until he was thirty years old that he turned his attention to astronomy. By rigid economy he obtained a telescope, and in 1781 discovered the planet Uranus. This great discovery gave him great fame and other substantial advantages. He was made private astronomer to the king and received a pension. His discoveries were so far in advance of his time, they had so little relation with those of his predecessors, that he may almost be said to have created a new science by revealing the immensity of the scale on which the universe is constructed.

[61] Nebulous. In astronomy a nebula is a luminous patch in the heavens far beyond the solar system, composed of a mass of stars or condensed gases.

[62] Fetich. The word seems to have been applied by Portuguese sailors and traders on the west coast of Africa to objects worshiped by the natives, which were regarded as charms or talismans. Of course the word here means an object of blind admiration and devotion.

[63] Cry up, to praise, extol.

[64] Ancient and honorable. Isaiah ix. 15.

[65] Complement. What is needed to complete or fill up some quantity or thing.

[66] Signet. Seal. Emerson is not always felicitous in his choice of metaphors.

[67] Macdonald. In Cervantes' "Don Quixote," Sancho Panza, the squire to the "knight of the metaphysical countenance," tells a story of a gentleman who had asked a countryman to dine with him. The farmer was pressed to take his seat at the head of the table, and when he refused out of politeness to his host, the latter became impatient and cried: "Sit there, clod-pate, for let me sit wherever I will, that will still be the upper end, and the place of worship to thee." This saying is commonly attributed to Rob Roy, but Emerson with his usual inaccuracy in such matters places it in the mouth of Macdonald,—which Macdonald is uncertain.

[68] Carolus Linnæus (1707-1778). A great Swedish botanist. He did much to make botany the orderly science it now is.

[69] Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). The most famous of English chemists. The most important to mankind of his many discoveries was the safety-lamp to be used in mines where there is danger of explosion from fire-damp.

[70] Baron George Cuvier (1769-1832). An illustrious French philosopher, statesman, and writer who made many discoveries in the realm of natural history, geology and philosophy.

[71] The moon. The tides are caused by the attraction of the moon and the sun. The attraction of the moon for the water nearest the moon is somewhat greater than the attraction of the earth's center. This causes a slight bulging of the water toward the moon and a consequent high tide.

[72] Emerson frequently omits the principal verb of his sentences as here: "In a century there may exist one or two men."

[73] This obscurely constructed sentence means: "For their acquiescence in a political and social inferiority the poor and low find some compensation in the immense moral capacity thereby gained."

[74] "They" refers to the hero or poet mentioned some twenty lines back.

[75] Comprehendeth. Here used in the original sense to include. The perfect man should be so thoroughly developed at every point that he will possess a share in the nature of every man.

[76] By the Classic age is generally meant the age of Greece and Rome; and by the Romantic is meant the middle ages.

[77] Introversion. Introspection is the more usual word to express the analytic self-searching so common in these days.

[78] Second thoughts. Emerson uses the word here in the same sense as the French arrière-pensée, a mental reservation.

[79]

"And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."
Hamlet, Act III, Sc. 1.

[80] Movement. The French Revolution.

[81] Let every common object be credited with the diviner attributes which will class it among others of the same importance.

[82] Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774). An eminent English poet and writer. He is best known by the comedy "She Stoops to Conquer," the poem "The Deserted Village," and the "Vicar of Wakefield." "Of all romances in miniature," says Schlegel, the great German critic, "the 'Vicar of Wakefield' is the most exquisite." It is probably the most popular English work of fiction in Germany.

[83] Robert Burns (1759-1796). A celebrated Scottish poet. The most striking characteristics of Burns' poetry are simplicity and intensity, in which he is scarcely, if at all, inferior to any of the greatest poets that have ever lived.

[84] William Cowper (1731-1800). One of the most popular of English poets. His poem "The Task" was probably more read in his day than any poem of equal length in the language. Cowper also made an excellent translation of Homer.

[85] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). The most illustrious name in German literature; a great poet, dramatist, novelist, philosopher, and critic. The Germans regard Goethe with the same veneration we accord to Shakespeare. The colossal drama "Faust" is the most splendid product of his genius, though he wrote a large number of other plays and poems.

[86] William Wordsworth (1770-1850). By many considered the greatest of modern English poets. His descriptions of the ever-varying moods of nature are the most exquisite in the language. Matthew Arnold in his essay on Emerson says: "As Wordsworth's poetry is, in my judgment, the most important work done in verse in our language during the present century, so Emerson's 'Essays' are, I think, the most important work done in prose."

[87] Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). A famous English essayist, historian, and speculative philosopher. It is scarcely too much to say that no other author of this century has exerted a greater influence not merely upon the literature but upon the mind of the English nation than Carlyle. Emerson was an intimate friend of Carlyle, and during the greater part of his life maintained a correspondence with the great Englishman. An interesting description of their meeting will be found among the "Critical Opinions" at the beginning of the work.

[88] Alexander Pope (1688-1744). The author of the "Essay on Criticism," "Rape of the Lock," the "Essay on Man," and other famous poems. Pope possessed little originality or creative imagination, but he had a vivid sense of the beautiful and an exquisite taste. He owed much of his popularity to the easy harmony of his verse and the keenness of his satire.

[89] Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). One of the eminent writers of the eighteenth century. He wrote "Lives of the Poets," poems, and probably the most remarkable work of the kind ever produced by a single person, an English dictionary.

[90] Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). One of the most distinguished of English historians. His great work is the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Carlyle called Gibbon, "the splendid bridge from the old world to the new."

[91] Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). A great Swedish theologian, naturalist, and mathematician, and the founder of a religious sect which has since his death become prominent among the philosophical schools of Christianity.

[92] Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). A Swiss teacher and educational reformer of great influence in his time.

COMPENSATION

[93] These lines are printed under the title of Compensation in Emerson's collected poems. He has also another poem of eight lines with the same title.

[94] Documents, data, facts.

[95] This doctrine, which a little observation would confute, is still taught by some.

[96] Doubloons, Spanish and South American gold coins of the value of about $15.60 each.

[97] Polarity, that quality or condition of a body by virtue of which it exhibits opposite or contrasted properties in opposite or contrasted directions.

[98] Systole and diastole, the contraction and dilation of the heart and arteries.

[99] They are increased and consequently want more.

[100] Intenerate, soften.

[101] White House, the popular name of the presidential mansion at Washington.

[102] Explain the phrase eat dust.

[103] Overlook, oversee, superintend.

[104] Res nolunt, etc. Translated in the previous sentence.

[105] The world ... dew. Explain the thought. What gives the earth its shape?

[106] The microscope ... little. This statement is not in accordance with the facts, if we are to understand perfect in the sense which the next sentence would suggest.

[107] Emerson has been considered a pantheist.

[108]Oἱ κύβοι, etc. The translation follows in the text. This old proverb is quoted by Sophocles, (Fragm. lxxiv. 2) in the form:

Ἀεὶ γὰρ εὖ πίπτουσιν οἱ Διὸς κύβοι,

Emerson uses it in Nature in the form "Nature's dice are always loaded."

[109] Amain, with full force, vigorously.

[110] The proverb is quoted by Horace, Epistles, I, x. 24:

"Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret."

A similar thought is expressed by Juvenal, Seneca, Cicero, and Aristophanes.

[111] Augustine, Confessions, B. I.

[112] Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans, the Zeus of the Greeks.

[113] Tying up the hands. The expression is used figuratively, of course.

[114] The supreme power in England is vested in Parliament.

[115] Prometheus stole fire from heaven to benefit the race of men. In punishment for this Jupiter chained him to a rock and set an eagle to prey upon his liver. Some unknown and terrible danger threatened Jupiter, the secret of averting which only Prometheus knew. For this secret Jupiter offered him his freedom.

[116] Minerva, goddess of wisdom, who sprang full-armed from the brain of Jupiter. The secret which she held is told in the following lines.

[117] Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Enamored of Tithonus, she persuaded Jupiter to grant him immortality, but forgot to ask for him immortal youth. Read Tennyson's poem on Tithonus.

[118] Achilles, the hero of Homer's Iliad. His mother Thetis, to render him invulnerable, plunged him into the waters of the Styx. The heel by which she held him was not washed by the waters and remained vulnerable. Here he received a mortal wound.

[119] Siegfried, hero of the Nibelungenlied, the old German epic poem. Having slain a dragon, he bathed in its blood and became covered with an invulnerable horny hide, only one small spot between his shoulders which was covered by a leaf remaining vulnerable. Into this spot the treacherous Hagen plunged his lance.

[120] Nemesis, a Greek female deity, goddess of retribution, who visited the righteous anger of the gods upon mortals.

[121] The Furies or Eumenides, stern and inexorable ministers of the vengeance of the gods.

[122] Ajax and Hector, Greek and Trojan heroes in the Trojan War. See Homer's Iliad. Achilles slew Hector and, lashing him to his chariot with the belt which Ajax had given Hector, dragged him round the walls of Troy. Ajax committed suicide with the sword which Hector had presented to him.

[123] Thasians, inhabitants of the island of Thasus. The story here told of the rival of the athlete Theagenes is found in Pausanias' Description of Greece, Book VI. chap. xi.

[124] Shakespeare, the greatest of English writers, seems to have succeeded entirely or almost entirely in removing the personal element from his writings.

[125] Hellenic, Greek.

[126] Tit for tat, etc. This paragraph is composed of a series of proverbs.

[127] Edmund Burke (1729?-1797), illustrious Irish statesman, orator, and author.

[128] Pawns, the pieces of lowest rank in chess.

[129] What is the meaning of obscene here? Compare the Latin.

[130] Polycrates, a tyrant of Samos, who was visited with such remarkable prosperity that he was advised by a friend to break the course of it by depriving himself of some valued possession. In accordance with this advice he cast into the sea an emerald ring which he considered his rarest treasure. A few days later a fisherman presented the monarch with a large fish inside of which the ring was found. Soon after this Polycrates fell into the power of an enemy and was nailed to a cross.

[131] Scot and lot, "formerly, a parish assessment laid on subjects according to their ability. Now, a phrase for obligations of every kind regarded collectively." (Webster.)

[132] Read Emerson's essay on Gifts.

[133] Worm worms, breed worms.

[134] Compare the old proverb "Murder will out." See Chaucer, N.P.T., 232 and 237, and Pr. T., 124.

[135]

"Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum."
Horace, Epist., I. XVIII. 65.

[136] Stag in the fable. See Æsop, lxvi. 184, Cerva et Leo; Phædrus I. 12. Cervus ad fontem; La Fontaine, vi. 9, Le Cerf se Voyant dans l'eau.

[137] See the quotation from St. Bernard farther on.

[138] Withholden, old participle of withhold, now withheld.

[139] What is the etymology of the word mob?

[140] Optimism and Pessimism. The meanings of these two opposites are readily made out from the Latin words from which they come.

[141] St. Bernard de Clairvaux (1091-1153), French ecclesiastic.

[142] Jesus. Holmes writes of Emerson: "Jesus was for him a divine manifestation, but only as other great human souls have been in all ages and are to-day. He was willing to be called a Christian just as he was willing to be called a Platonist.... If he did not worship the 'man Christ Jesus' as the churches of Christendom have done, he followed his footsteps so nearly that our good Methodist, Father Taylor, spoke of him as more like Christ than any man he had known."

[143] The first his refers to Jesus, the second to Shakespeare.

[144] Banyan. What is the characteristic of this tree that makes it appropriate for this figure?

SELF-RELIANCE

[145] Ne te, etc. "Do not seek for anything outside of thyself." From Persius, Sat. I. 7. Compare Macrobius, Com. in Somn. Scip., I. ix. 3, and Boethius, De Consol. Phil., IV. 4.

[146] Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune.

[147] These lines appear in Emerson's Quatrains under the title Power.

[148] Genius. See the paragraph on genius in Emerson's lecture on The Method of Nature, one sentence of which runs: "Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within, going abroad only for audience, and spectator."

[149] "The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also."—Emerson, Behavior.

[150] Plato (429-347 b.c.), (See note 36.)

[151] Milton (1608-1674), the great English epic poet, author of Paradise Lost.

"O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,
O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,
God-gifted organ-voice of England,
Milton, a name to resound for ages."Tennyson.

[152] "The great poet makes feel our own wealth."—Emerson, The Over-Soul.

[153] Then most when, most at the time when.

[154] "The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity."—Emerson, Address to the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge.

[155]

"For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the soul within."
Tennyson, In Memoriam, V. I.

[156] Trust thyself. This is the theme of the present essay, and is a lesson which Emerson is never tired of teaching. In The American Scholar he says:

"In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended." In the essay on Greatness:

"Self-respect is the early form in which greatness appears.... Stick to your own.... Follow the path your genius traces like the galaxy of heaven for you to walk in."

Carlyle says:

"The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself."

[157] Chaos (Χάος), the confused, unorganized condition in which the world was supposed to have existed before it was reduced to harmony and order; hence, utter confusion and disorder.

[158] These, i.e., children, babes, and brutes.

[159] Four or five. Supply the noun.

[160] Nonchalance, a French word meaning indifference, coolness.

[161] Pit in the playhouse, formerly, the seats on the floor below the level of the stage. These cheap seats were occupied by a class who did not hesitate to express their opinions of the performances.

[162] Eclat, a French word meaning brilliancy of success, striking effect.

[163] "Lethe, the river of oblivion."—Paradise Lost. Oblivion, forgetfulness.

[164] Who. What is the construction?

[165] Nonconformist, one who does not conform to established usages or opinions. Emerson considers conformity and consistency as the two terrors that scare us from self-trust. (See note 182.)

[166] Explore if it be goodness, investigate for himself and see if it be really goodness.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
Paul, I. Thes. v. 21.

[167] Suffrage, approval.

"What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."
Shakespeare, II. Henry VI., III. 2.

[168] "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." —Hamlet, ii. 2.

[169] Barbadoes, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, one of the Lesser Antilles. The negroes, composing by far the larger part of the population, were formerly slaves.

[170] He had rather have his actions ascribed to whim and caprice than to spend the day in explaining them.

[171] Diet and bleeding, special diet and medical care, used figuratively, of course.

[172] Read Emerson's essay on Greatness.

[173] The precise man, precisely what kind of man.

[174] "By their fruits ye shall know them."—Matthew, vii. 16 and 20.

[175] With, notwithstanding, in spite of.

[176] Of the bench, of an impartial judge.

[177] Bound their eyes with ... handkerchief, in this game of blindman's-buff.

[178] "Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve; hast thou not two eyes of thy own?"—Carlyle.

[179] Give examples of men who have been made to feel the displeasure of the world for their nonconformity.

[180] "Nihil tam incertum nec tam inæstimabile est quam animi multitudinis."—Livy, xxxi. 34.

"Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus."
Claudianus, De IV. Consul. Honorii, 302.

[181] The other terror. The first, conformity, has just been treated.

[182] Consistency. Compare, on the other hand, the well-known saying, "Consistency, thou art a jewel."

[183] Orbit, course in life.

[184] Somewhat, something.

[185] See Genesis, xxxix. 12.

[186] Pythagoras (fl. about 520 b.c.), a Greek philosopher. His society was scattered and persecuted by the fury of the populace.

[187] Socrates (470?-399 b.c.), the great Athenian philosopher, whose teachings are the subject of most of Plato's writings, was accused of corrupting the youth, and condemned to drink hemlock.

[188] Martin Luther (1483-1546) preached against certain abuses of the Roman Catholic Church and was excommunicated by the Pope. He became the leader of the Protestant Reformation.

[189] Copernicus (1473-1543) discovered the error of the old Ptolemaic system of astronomy and showed that the sun is the centre of our planetary system. Fearing the persecution of the church, he hesitated long to publish his discovery, and it was many years after his death before the world accepted his theory.

[190] Galileo (1564-1642), the famous Italian astronomer and physicist, discoverer of the satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, was thrown into prison by the Inquisition.

[191] Sir Isaac Newton. (See note 53.)

[192] Andes, the great mountain system of South America.

[193] Himmaleh, Himalaya, the great mountain system of Asia.

[194] Alexandrian stanza. The Alexandrian line consists of twelve syllables (iambic hexameter). Neither the acrostic nor the Alexandrine has the property assigned to it here. A palindrame reads the same forward as backward, as:

"Madam, I'm Adam";
"Signa te signa; temere me tangis et angis";

or the inscription on the church of St. Sophia, Constantinople:

Νίψον ἀνοήματα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν

[195] The reference is to sailing vessels, of course.

[196] Scorn eyes, scorn observers.

[197] Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), this distinguished statesman and orator. He became very popular as a statesman and was known as "The Great Commoner."

[198] Adams. The reference is presumably to Samuel Adams (1722-1803), a popular leader and orator in the cause of American freedom. He was a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Emerson may have in mind, however, John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States.

[199] Spartan. The ancient Spartans were noted for their courage and fortitude.

[200] Julius Cæsar (100-44 b.c.), the great Roman general, statesman, orator, and author.

[201] St. Anthony (251-356), Egyptian founder of monachism, the system of monastic seclusion.

[202] George Fox (1624-1691), English founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers.

[203] John Wesley (1703-1791), English founder of the religious sect known as Methodists.

[204] Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), English philanthropist and abolitionist.

[205] Scipio (235-184 b.c.), the great Roman general who defeated Hannibal and decided the fate of Carthage. The quotation is from Paradise Lost, Book IX., line 610.

[206] In the story of Abou Hassan or The Sleeper Awakened in the Arabian Nights Abou Hassan awakes and finds himself treated in every respect as the Caliph Haroun Al-raschid. Shakespeare has made use of a similar trick in Taming of the Shrew, where Christopher Sly is put to bed drunk in the lord's room and on awaking is treated as a lord.

[207] Alfred the Great (849-901), King of the West Saxons. He was a wise king, a great scholar, and a patron of learning.

[208] Scanderbeg, George Castriota (1404-1467), an Albanian chief who embraced Christianity and carried on a successful war against the Turks.

[209] Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632), King of Sweden, the hero of Protestantism in the Thirty Years' War.

[210] Hieroglyphic, a character in the picture-writing of the ancient Egyptian priests; hence, hidden sign.

[211] Parallax, an angle used in astronomy in calculating the distance of a heavenly body. The parallax decreases as the distance of the body increases.

[212] The child has the advantage of the experience of all his ancestors. Compare Tennyson's line in Locksley Hall:

"I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."

[213] "Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also."—Emerson, Introd. to Nature, Addresses, etc.

[214] Explain the thought in this sentence.

[215] Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

[216] Agent, active, acting.

[217] An allusion to the Mohammedan custom of removing the shoes before entering a mosque.

[218] Of a truth, men are mystically united; a mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one.

[219] Thor and Woden. Woden or Odin was the chief god of Scandinavian mythology. Thor, his elder son, was the god of thunder. From these names come the names of the days Wednesday and Thursday.

[220] Explain the meaning of this sentence.

[221] You, or you, addressing different persons.

[222] "The truth shall make you free."—John, viii. 32.

[223] Antinomianism, the doctrine that the moral law is not binding under the gospel dispensation, faith alone being necessary to salvation.

[224] "There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that—to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail."
George Eliot, Middlemarch, lxxvi.

[225] Explain the use of it in these expressions.

[226] Stoic, a disciple of the Greek philosopher Zeno, who taught that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy and grief, and should submit without complaint to the inevitable.

[227] Word made flesh, see John, i. 14.

[228] Healing to the nations, see Revelation, xxii. 2.

[229] In what prayers do men allow themselves to indulge?

[230]

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast."
Montgomery, What is Prayer?

[231] Caratach (Caractacus) is a historical character in Fletcher's (1576-1625) tragedy of Bonduca (Boadicea).

[232] Zoroaster, a Persian philosopher, founder of the ancient Persian religion. He flourished long before the Christian era.

[233] "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."—Exodus, xx. 19. Compare also the parallel passage in Deuteronomy, v. 25-27.

[234] John Locke. (See note 18.)

[235] Lavoisier (1743-1794), celebrated French chemical philosopher, discoverer of the composition of water.

[236] James Hutton (1726-1797), great Scotch geologist, author of the Theory of the Earth.

[237] Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), English philosopher, jurist, and legislative reformer.

[238] Fourier (1772-1837), French socialist, founder of the system of Fourierism.

[239] Calvinism, the doctrines of John Calvin (1509-1564). French theologian and Protestant reformer. A cardinal doctrine of Calvinism is predestination.

[240] Quakerism, the doctrines of the Quakers or Friends, a society founded by George Fox (1624-1691).

[241] Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish theosophist, founder of the New Jerusalem Church. He is taken by Emerson in his Representative Men as the type of the mystic, and is often mentioned in his other works.

[242] "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not."—Emerson, Art.

[243] Thebes, a celebrated ruined city of Upper Egypt.

[244] Palmyra, a ruined city of Asia situated in an oasis of the Syrian desert, supposed to be the Tadmor built by Solomon in the wilderness (II. Chr., viii. 4).

[245]

"Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind....
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity we make or find."
Goldsmith (and Johnson),
The Traveler, 423-32.

"He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' center, and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself in his own dungeon."
Milton, Comus, 381-5.

Compare also Paradise Lost, I, 255-7.

[246] Vatican, the palace of the pope in Rome, with its celebrated library, museum, and art gallery.

[247] Doric, the oldest, strongest, and simplest of the three styles of Grecian architecture.

[248] Gothic, a pointed style of architecture, prevalent in western Europe in the latter part of the middle ages.

[249] Never imitate. Emerson insists on this doctrine.

[250] Shakespeare (1564-1616), the great English poet and dramatist. He is mentioned in Emerson's writings more than any other character in history, and is taken as the type of the poet in his Representative Men.

"O mighty poet! Thy works are not as those of other men, simply and merely great works of art; but are also like the phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers,—like frost and snow, rain and dew, hailstorm and thunder, which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless or inert,—but that, the further we press in our discoveries, the more we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where the careless eye had seen nothing but accident!"—De Quincy.

[251] Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American philosopher, statesman, diplomatist, and author. He discovered the identity of lightning with electricity, invented the lightning-rod, went on several diplomatic missions to Europe, was one of the committee that drew up the Declaration of Independence, signed the treaty of Paris, and compiled Poor Richard's Almanac.

[252] Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a famous English philosopher and statesman. He became Lord Chancellor under Elizabeth. He is best known by his Essays; he wrote also the Novum Organum and the Advancement of Learning.

[253] Sir Isaac Newton. (See note 53.)

[254] Scipio. (See note 205.)

[255] Phidias (500?-432? b.c.), famous Greek sculptor.

[256] Egyptians. He has in mind the pyramids.

[257] The Pentateuch is attributed to Moses.

[258] Dante (1265-1321), the greatest of Italian poets, author of the Divina Commedia.

[259] Foreworld, a former ideal state of the world.

[260] New Zealander, inhabitant of New Zealand, a group of two islands lying southeast of Australia.

[261] Geneva, a city of Switzerland, situated at the southwestern extremity of Lake Geneva.

[262] Greenwich nautical almanac. The meridian of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, near London, is the prime meridian for reckoning the longitude of the world. The nautical almanac is a publication containing astronomical data for the use of navigators and astronomers. What is the name of the corresponding publication of the U.S. Observatory at Washington?

[263] Get the meaning of these astronomical terms.

[264] Plutarch. (50?-120? a.d.), Greek philosopher and biographer, author of Parallel Lives, a series of Greek and Roman biographies. Next after Shakespeare and Plato he is the author most frequently mentioned by Emerson. Read the essay of Emerson on Plutarch.

[265] Phocion (402-317 b.c.), Athenian statesman and general. (See note 364.)

[266] Anaxagoras (500-426 b.c.), Greek philosopher of distinction.

[267] Diogenes (400?-323?), Greek cynic philosopher who affected great contempt for riches and honors and the comforts of civilized life, and is said to have taken up his residence in a tub.

[268] Henry Hudson (—— - 1611), English navigator and explorer, discoverer of the bay and river which bear his name.

[269] Bering or Behring (1680-1741), Danish navigator, discoverer of Behring Strait.

[270] Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855), English navigator and Arctic explorer.

[271] Sir John Franklin (1786-1846?), celebrated English navigator and Arctic explorer, lost in the Arctic seas.

[272] Christopher Columbus (1445?-1506), Genoese navigator and discoverer of America. His ship, the Santa Maria, appears small and insignificant in comparison with the modern ocean ship.

[273] Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of France, one of the greatest military geniuses the world has ever seen. He was defeated in the battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington, and died in exile on the isle of St. Helena. Emerson takes him as a type of the man of the world in his Representative Men: "I call Napoleon the agent or attorney of the middle class of modern society.... He was the agitator, the destroyer of prescription, the internal improver, the liberal, the radical, the inventor of means, the opener of doors and markets, the subverter of monopoly and abuse.... He had the virtues of the masses of his constituents: he had also their vices. I am sorry that the brilliant picture has its reverse."

[274] Comte de las Cases (not Casas) (1766-1842), author of Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène.

[275] Ali, Arabian caliph, surnamed the "Lion of God," cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed. He was assassinated about 661.

[276] The county of Essex in England has several namesakes in America.

[277] Fortune. In Roman mythology Fortune, the goddess of fortune or chance, is represented as standing on a ball or wheel.

"Nec metuis dubio Fortunæ stantis in orbe
Numen, et exosæ verba superba deæ?"
Ovid, Tristia, v., 8, 8.

FRIENDSHIP

[278] Most of Emerson's Essays were first delivered as lectures, in practically the form in which they afterwards appeared in print. The form and style, it is true, were always carefully revised before publication; this Emerson called 'giving his thoughts a Greek dress.' His essay on Friendship, published in the First Series of Essays in 1841 was not, so far as we know, delivered as a lecture; parts of it, however, were taken from lectures which Emerson delivered on Society, The Heart, and Private Life.

In connection with his essay on Friendship, the student should read the two other notable addresses on the same subject, one the speech by Cicero, the famous Roman orator, and the other the essay by Lord Bacon, the great English author.

[279] Relume. Is this a common word? Define it.

[280] Pass my gate. The walk opposite Emerson's house on the 'Great Road' to Boston was a favorite winter walk for Concord people. Along it passed the philosophic Alcott and the imaginative Hawthorne, as well as famous townsmen, and school children.

[281] My friends have come to me, etc.: Compare with Emerson's views here expressed the noble passage in his essay on The Over-Soul: "Every friend whom not thy fantastic will but the great and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And this because the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly in endless circulation through all men, as the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one."

[282] Bard. Poet: originally one who composed and sang to the music of a harp verses in honor of heroes and heroic deeds.

[283] Hymn, ode, and epic. Define each of these three kinds of poetry.

[284] Apollo. In classic mythology, the sun god who presided over music, poetry, and art; he was the guardian and leader of the Muses.

[285] Muses. In classic mythology, the nine sisters who presided over music, poetry, art, and science. They were Clio the muse of history, Euterpe of music, especially the flute, Thalia of comedy, Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of dancing, Erato of erotic poetry, mistress of the lyre, Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of astronomy, Calliope of eloquence and epic poetry.

[286] Genius. According to an old belief, a spirit that watched over a person to control, guide and aid him.

[287] "Crush the sweet poison," etc. This is a quotation from Comus, a poem by Milton.

[288] Systole and diastole. (See note 98.)

[289] Friendship, like the immortality, etc. See on what a high plane Emerson places this relation of friendship. In 1840 he wrote in a letter: "I am a worshiper of friendship, and cannot find any other good equal to it. As soon as any man pronounces the words which approve him fit for that great office, I make no haste; he is holy; let me be holy also; our relations are eternal; why should we count days and weeks?"

[290] Elysian temple. Temple of bliss. In Greek mythology, Elysium was the abode of the blessed after death.

[291] An Egyptian skull. Plutarch says that at an Egyptian feast a skull was displayed, either as a hint to make the most of the pleasure which can be enjoyed but for a brief space, or as a warning not to set one's heart upon transitory things.

[292] Conscious of a universal success, etc. Emerson wrote in his journal: "My entire success, such as it is, is composed wholly of particular failures."

[293] Extends the old leaf. Compare Emerson's lines:

"When half-gods go
The gods arrive."

[294] A texture of wine and dreams. What does Emerson mean by this phrase? Explain the whole sentence.

[295] "The valiant warrior," etc. The quotation is from Shakespeare's Sonnet, xxv.

[296] Naturlangsamkeit. A German word meaning slowness. The slowness of natural development.

[297] Olympian. One who took part in the great Greek games held every four years on the plain of Olympia. The racing, wrestling and other contests of strength and skill were accompanied by sacrifices to the gods, processions, and banquets. There was a sense of dignity and almost of worship about the games. The Olympic games have been recently revived, and athletes from all countries of the world contest for the prizes—simple garlands of wild olive.

[298] I knew a man who, etc. The allusion is to Jonas Very, a mystic and poet, who lived at Salem, Massachusetts.

[299] Paradox. Define this word. Explain its application to a friend.

[300] My author says, etc. The quotation is from A Consideration upon Cicero, by the French author, Montaigne. Montaigne was one of Emerson's favorite authors from his boyhood: of the essays he says, "I felt as if I myself, had written this book in some former life, so sincerely it spoke my thoughts."

[301] Cherub. What is the difference between a cherub and a seraph?

[302] Curricle. A two-wheeled carriage, especially popular in the eighteenth century.

[303] This law of one to one. Emerson felt that this same law applied to nature. He wrote in his journal: "Nature says to man, 'one to one, my dear.'"

[304] Crimen quos, etc. The Latin saying is translated in the preceding sentence.

[305] Nonage. We use more commonly the word, "minority."

[306] Janus-faced. The word here means simply two-faced, without the idea of deceit usually attached to it. In Roman mythology, Janus, the doorkeeper of heaven was the protector of doors and gateways and the patron of the beginning and end of undertakings. He was the god of the rising and setting of the sun, and was represented with two faces, one looking to the east and the other to the west. His temple at Rome was kept open in time of war and closed in time of peace.

[307] Harbinger. A forerunner; originally an officer who rode in advance of a royal person to secure proper lodgings and accommodations.

[308] Empyrean. Highest and purest heaven; according to the ancients, the region of pure light and fire.

HEROISM

[309] Title. Probably this essay is, essentially at least, the lecture on Heroism delivered in Boston in the winter of 1837, in the course of lectures on Human Culture.

[310] Motto. This saying of Mahomet's was the only motto prefixed to the essay in the first edition. In later editions, Emerson prefixed, according to his custom, some original lines;

"Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,
Sugar spends to fatten slaves,
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons,
Thunder clouds are Jove's festoons,
Drooping oft in wreaths of dread
Lightning-knotted round his head:
The hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head-winds right for royal sails."

[311] Elder English dramatists. The dramatists who preceded Shakespeare. In his essay on Shakespeare; or, the Poet, Emerson enumerates the foremost of these,—"Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, Jonson, Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Heywood, Middleton, Peele, Ford, Massinger, Beaumont and Fletcher."

[312] Beaumont and Fletcher. Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were two dramatists of the Elizabethan age. They wrote together and their styles were so similar that critics are unable to identify the share of each in their numerous plays.

[313] Rodrigo, Pedro, or Valerio. Favorite names for heroes among the dramatists. Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, known usually by the title of the Cid, was the national hero of Spain, famous for his exploits against the Moors. Don Pedro was the Prince of Arragon in Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing.

[314] Bonduca, Sophocles, the Mad Lover, and Double Marriage. The first, third and fourth are names of plays by Beaumont and Fletcher. In the case of the second, Emerson, by a lapse of memory, gives the name of one of the chief characters instead of the name of the play—The Triumph of Honor in a piece called Four Plays in One. It is from this play by Beaumont and Fletcher that the passage in the essay is quoted.

[315] Adriadne's crown. According to Greek mythology, the crown of Adriadne was, for her beauty and her sufferings, put among the stars. She was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete; she gave Theseus the clue by means of which he escaped from the labyrinth and she was afterwards abandoned by him.

[316] Romulus. The reputed founder of the city of Rome.

[317] Laodamia, Dion. Read these two poems by Wordsworth, the great English poet, and tell why you think Emerson mentioned them here.

[318] Scott. Sir Walter Scott, a famous Scotch author.

[319] Lord Evandale, Balfour of Burley. These are characters in Scott's novel, Old Mortality. The passage referred to by Emerson is in the forty-second chapter.

[320] Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle was a great admirer of heroes, asserting that history is the biography of great men. One of his most popular books is Heroes and Hero-Worship, on a plan similar to that of Emerson's Representative Men.

[321] Robert Burns. A Scotch lyric poet. Emerson was probably thinking of the patriotic song, Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled.

[322] Harleian Miscellanies. A collection of manuscripts published in the eighteenth century, and named for Robert Harley, the English statesman who collected them.

[323] Lutzen. A small town in Prussia. The battle referred to was fought in 1632 and in it the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus gained a great victory over vastly superior numbers. Nearly two hundred years later another battle was fought at Lutzen, in which Napoleon gained a victory over the allied Russians and Prussians.

[324] Simon Ockley. An English scholar of the seventeenth century whose chief work was a History of the Saracens.

[325] Oxford. One of the two great English universities.

[326] Plutarch. (See note 264.)

[327] Brasidas. This hero, described by Plutarch, was a Spartan general who lived about four hundred years before Christ.

[328] Dion. A Greek philosopher who ruled the city of Syracuse in the fourth century before Christ.

[329] Epaminondas. A Greek general and statesman of the fourth century before Christ.

[330] Scipio. (See note 205.)

[331] Stoicism. The stern and severe philosophy taught by the Greek philosopher Zeno; he taught that men should always seek virtue and be indifferent to pleasure and happiness. This belief, carried to the extreme of severity, exercised a great influence on many noble Greeks and Romans.

[332] Heroism is an obedience, etc. In one of his poems Emerson says:

"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,'
The youth replies, 'I can.'"

[333] Plotinus. An Egyptian philosopher who taught in Rome during the third century. It was said that he so exalted the mind that he was ashamed of his body.

[334] Indeed these humble considerations, etc. The passage, like many which Emerson quotes, is rendered inexactly. The Prince says to Poins: "Indeed these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace it is to me to remember thy name! or to know thy face to-morrow! or to take note how many pairs of silk stockings thou hast, that is, these and those that were thy peach-colored ones! or to bear the inventory of thy shirts, as, one for superfluity and another for use!" Shakespeare's Henry IV., Part II. 2, 2.

[335] Ibn Hankal. Ibn Hankul, an Arabian geographer and traveler of the tenth century. He wrote an account of his twenty years' travels in Mohammedan countries; in 1800 this was translated into English by Sir William Jones under the title of The Oriental Geography of Ibn Hankal. In that volume this anecdote is told in slightly different words.

[336] Bokhara. Where is Bokhara? It corresponds to the ancient Sogdiana.

[337] Bannocks. Thick cakes, made usually of oatmeal. What does Emerson mean by this sentence? Probably no person ever met his visitors, many of whom were "exacting and wearisome," and must have been unwelcome, with more perfect courtesy and graciousness than Emerson.

[338] John Eliot. Give as full an account as you can of the life and works of this noble Apostle to the Indians of the seventeenth century.

[339] King David, etc. See First Chronicles, 11, 15-19.

[340] Brutus. Marcus Junius Brutus, a Roman patriot of the first century before Christ, who took part in the assassination of Julius Cæsar.

[341] Philippi. A city of Macedonia near which in the year 42 B.C. were fought two battles in which the republican army under Brutus and Cassius was defeated by Octavius and Antony, friends of Cæsar.

[342] Euripides. A Greek tragic poet of the fifth century before Christ.

[343] Scipio. (See note 205.) Plutarch in his Morals gives another version of the story: "When Paetilius and Quintus accused him of many crimes before the people; 'on this very day,' he said, 'I conquered Hannibal and Carthage. I for my part am going with my crown on to the Capitol to sacrifice; and let him that pleaseth stay and pass his vote upon me.' Having thus said, he went his way; and the people followed him, leaving his accusers declaiming to themselves."

[344] Socrates. (See note 187.)

[345] Prytaneum. A public hall at Athens.

[346] Sir Thomas More. An English statesman and author who was beheaded in 1535 on a charge of high treason. The incident to which Emerson refers is one which showed his "pleasant wit" undisturbed by the prospect of death. As the executioner was about to strike, More moved his head carefully out of reach of the ax. "Pity that should be cut," he said, "that has never committed treason."

[347] Blue Laws. Any rigid Sunday laws or religious regulations. The term is usually applied to the early laws of New Haven and Connecticut which regulated personal and religious conduct.

[348] Epaminondas. (See note 329.)

[349] Olympus. A mountain of Greece, the summit of which, according to Greek mythology, was the home of the gods.

[350] Jerseys. Consult a history of the United States for a full account of Washington's campaign in New Jersey.

[351] Milton. (See note 151.)

[352] Pericles. A famous Greek statesman of the fifth century before Christ, in whose age Athens was preëminent in naval and military affairs and in letters and art.

[353] Xenophon. A Greek historian of the fourth century before Christ.

[354] Columbus. Give an account of his life.

[355] Bayard. Chevalier de Bayard was a French gentleman of the fifteenth century. He is the French national hero, and is called "The Knight without fear and without reproach."

[356] Sidney. Probably Sir Philip Sidney, an English gentleman and scholar of the sixteenth century who is the English national hero as Bayard is the French; another brave Englishman was Algernon Sidney, a politician and patriot of the seventeenth century.

[357] Hampden. John Hampden was an English statesman and patriot who was killed in the civil war of the seventeenth century.

[358] Colossus. The Colossus of Rhodes was a gigantic statue—over a hundred feet in height—of the Rhodian sun god. It was one of the seven wonders of the world; it was destroyed by an earthquake about two hundred years before Christ.

[359] Sappho. A Greek poet of the seventh century before Christ. Her fame remains, though most of her poems have been lost.

[360] Sevigné. Marquise de Sevigné was a French author of the seventeenth century.

[361] De Staël. Madame de Staël was a French writer whose books and political opinions were condemned by Napoleon.

[362] Themis. A Greek goddess. The personification of law, order, and justice.

[363] A high counsel, etc. Such was the advice given to the Emerson boys by their aunt, Miss Mary Moody Emerson: "Scorn trifles, lift your aims; do what you are afraid to do; sublimity of character must come from sublimity of motive." Upon her monument are inscribed Emerson's words about her: "She gave high counsels. It was the privilege of certain boys to have this immeasurably high standard indicated to their childhood, a blessing which nothing else in education could supply."

[364] Phocion. A Greek general and statesman of the fourth century before Christ who advised the Athenians to make peace with Philip of Macedon. He was put to death on a charge of treason.

[365] Lovejoy. Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, a Presbyterian clergyman of Maine who published a periodical against slavery. In 1837 an Illinois mob demanded his printing press, which he refused to give up. The building containing it was set on fire and when Lovejoy came out he was shot.

[366] Let them rave, etc. These lines are misquoted, being evidently given from memory, from Tennyson's Dirge. In the poem occur these lines:

"Let them rave.
Thou wilt never raise thine head
From the green that folds thy grave—
Let them rave."

MANNERS

[367] The essay on Manners is from the Second Series of Essays, published in 1844, three years after the First Series. The essays in this volume, like those in the first, were, for the most part, made up of Emerson's lectures, rearranged and corrected. The lecture on Manners had been delivered in the winter of 1841. He had given another lecture on the same subject about four years before, and several years later he treated of the same subject in his essay on Behavior in The Conduct of Life. You will find it interesting to read Behavior in connection with this essay.

[368] Feejee islanders. Since this essay was written, the people of the Feejee, or Fiji, Islands have become Christianized, and, to a large extent, civilized.

[369] Gournou. This description is found in A Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, by Belzoni, an Italian traveler and explorer.

[370] Borgoo. A province of Africa.

[371] Tibboos, Bornoos. Tribes of Central Africa, mentioned in Heeren's Historical Researches.

[372] Honors himself with architecture. Architecture was a subject in which Emerson was deeply interested. Read his poem, The Problem.

[373] Chivalry. Chivalry may be considered "as embodying the Middle Age conception of the ideal life of ... the Knights"; the word is often used to express "the ideal qualifications of a knight, as courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms." Fully to understand the order of Knighthood and the ideals of chivalry, you must read the history of Europe in the Middle Ages.

[374] Sir Philip Sidney. (See note 356.)

[375] Sir Walter Scott. (1771-1832). His historical novels dealing with the Middle Ages have some fine pictures of the chivalrous characters in which he delighted.

[376] Masonic sign. A sign of secret brotherhood, like the sign given by one Mason to another.

[377] Correlative abstract. Corresponding abstract name. Sir Philip Sidney, himself the ideal gentleman, used the word "gentlemanliness." He said: "Gentlemanliness is high-erected thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy."

[378] Gentilesse. Gentle birth and breeding. Emerson was very fond of the passage on "gentilesse" in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale.

[379] Feudal Ages. The Middle Ages in Europe during which the feudal system prevailed. According to this, land was held by its owners on condition of certain duties, especially military service, performed for a superior lord.

[380] God knows, etc. Why is this particularly true of a republic such as the United States?

[381] The incomparable advantage of animal spirits. Why does Emerson regard this as of such importance? In his journals he frequently comments on his own lack of animal spirits, and says that it unfits him for general society and for action.

[382] The sense of power. "I like people who can do things," wrote Emerson in his journal.

[383] Lundy's Lane. Give a full account of this battle in the War of 1812.

[384] Men of the right Cæsarian pattern. Men versatile as was Julius Cæsar, the Roman, famous as a general, statesman, orator, and writer.

[385] Timid maxim. Why does Emerson term this saying "timid"?

[386] Lord Falkland. Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, was an English politician who espoused the royalist side; he was killed in battle in the Civil War.

[387] Saladin. A famous sultan of Egypt and Syria who lived in the twelfth century. Scott describes him as possessing an ideal knightly character and introduces him, disguised as a physician and also as a wandering soldier in his historical romance, The Talisman.

[388] Sapor. A Persian monarch of the fourth century who defeated the Romans in battle.

[389] The Cid. See "Rodrigo," in Heroism, 313.

[390] Julius Cæsar. See note on "Cæsarian," 384.

[391] Scipio. (See note 205.)

[392] Alexander. Alexander, King of Macedon, surnamed the Great. In the fourth century before Christ he made himself master of the known world.

[393] Pericles. See note on Heroism, 352.

[394] Diogenes. (See note 267.)

[395] Socrates. (See note 187.)

[396] Epaminondas. (See note 329.)

[397] My contemporaries. Emerson probably had in mind, among others, his friend, the gentle philosopher, Thoreau.

[398] Fine manners. "I think there is as much merit in beautiful manners as in hard work," said Emerson in his journal.

[399] Napoleon. (See note 273.)

[400] Noblesse. Nobility. Why does Emerson use here the French word?

[401] Faubourg St. Germain. A once fashionable quarter of Paris, on the south bank of the Seine; it was long the headquarters of the French royalists.

[402] Cortez. Consult a history of the United States for an account of this Spanish soldier, the conqueror of Mexico.

[403] Nelson. Horatio Nelson, an English admiral, who won many great naval victories and was killed in the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

[404] Mexico. The scene of Cortez's victories.

[405] Marengo. The scene of a battle in Italy in 1800, in which Napoleon defeated the Austrians with a larger army and made himself master of northern Italy.

[406] Trafalgar. A cape on the southern coast of Spain, the scene of Nelson's last great victory, in which the allied French and Spanish fleets were defeated.

[407] Mexico, Marengo, and Trafalgar. Is this the order in which you would expect these words to occur? Why not?

[408] Estates of the realm. Orders or classes of people with regard to political rights and powers. In modern times, the nobility, the clergy, and the people are called "the three estates."

[409] Tournure. Figure; turn of dress,—and so of mind.

[410] Coventry. It is said that the people of Coventry, a city in England, at one time so disliked soldiers that to send a military man there meant to exclude him from social intercourse; hence the expression "to send to Coventry" means to exclude from society.

[411] "If you could see Vich Ian Vohr with his tail on." Vich Ian Vohr is a Scotch chieftain in Scott's novel, Waverley. One of his dependents says to Waverley, the young English officer: "If you Saxon duinhé-wassal [English gentleman] saw but the Chief with his tail on." "With his tail on?" echoed Edward in some surprise. "Yes—that is, with all his usual followers when he visits those of the same rank." See Waverley, chapter 16.

[412] Mercuries. The word here means simply messengers. According to Greek mythology, Mercury was the messenger of the gods.

[413] Herald's office. In England the Herald's College, or College of Arms, is a royal corporation the chief business of which is to grant armorial bearings, or coats of arms, and to trace and preserve genealogies. What does Emerson mean by comparing certain circles of society to this corporation?

[414] Amphitryon. Host; it came to have this meaning from an incident in the story of Amphitryon, a character in Greek legend. At one time Jupiter assumed the form of Amphitryon and gave a banquet. The real Amphitryon came in and asserted that he was master of the house. In the French play, founded on this story, the question is settled by the assertion of the servants and guests that "he who gives the feast is the host."

[415] Tuileries. An old royal residence in Paris which was burned in 1871.

[416] Escurial, or escorial. A celebrated royal edifice near Madrid in Spain.

[417] Hide ourselves as Adam, etc. See Genesis iii. 8.

[418] Cardinal Caprara. An Italian cardinal, Bishop of Milan, who negotiated the famous concordat of 1801, an agreement between the Church and State regulating the relations between civil and ecclesiastical powers.

[419] The pope. Pope Pius VII.

[420] Madame de Staël. (See note 361.)

[421] Mr. Hazlitt. William Hazlitt, an English writer.

[422] Montaigne. A French essayist of the sixteenth century.

[423] The hint of tranquillity and self-poise. It is suggested that Emerson had here in mind a favorite passage of the German author, Richter, in which Richter says of the Greek statues: "The repose not of weariness but of perfection looks from their eyes and rests upon their lips."

[424] A Chinese etiquette. What does Emerson mean by this expression?

[425] Recall. In the first edition, Emerson had here the word "signify." Which is the better word and why?

[426] Measure. What meaning has this word here? Is this the sense in which we generally use it?

[427] Creole natures. What is a creole? What does Emerson mean by "Creole natures"?

[428] Mr. Fox. Charles James Fox, an English statesman and orator of the eighteenth century.

[429] Burke. Both Fox and Burke opposed the taxation of the American colonies and sympathized with their resistance; it was on the subject of the French Revolution that the two friends clashed.

[430] Sheridan. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, an Irish dramatist, member of the famous Literary Club to which both Fox and Burke belonged.

[431] Circe. According to Greek legend, Circe was a beautiful enchantress. Men who partook of the draught she offered, were turned to swine.

[432] Captain Symmes. The only real personage of this group. He asserted that there was an opening to the interior of the earth which was stocked with plants and animals.

[433] Clerisy. What word would we be more apt to use here?

[434] St. Michael's (Square). St. Michael's was an order instituted by Louis XI. of France.

[435] Cologne water. A perfumed water first made at the city of Cologne in Germany, from which it took its name.

[436] Poland. This kingdom of Europe was, in the eighteenth century, taken possession of and divided among its powerful neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

[437] Philhellene. Friend of Greece.

[438] As Heaven and Earth are fairer far, etc. This passage is quoted from Book II. of Keats' Hyperion.

[439] Waverley. The Waverley novels, a name applied to all of Scott's novels from Waverley, the title of the first one.

[440] Robin Hood. An English outlaw and popular hero, the subject of many ballads.

[441] Minerva. In Roman mythology, the goddess of wisdom corresponding to the Greek Pallas-Athene.

[442] Juno. In Roman mythology, the wife of the supreme god Jupiter.

[443] Polymnia. In Greek mythology, one of the nine muses who presided over sacred poetry; the name is more usually written Polyhymia.

[444] Delphic Sibyl. In ancient mythology, the Sibyls were certain women who possessed the power of prophecy. One of these who made her abode at Delphi in Greece was called the Delphian, or Delphic, sibyl.

[445] Hafiz. A Persian poet of the fourteenth century.

[446] Firdousi. A Persian poet of the tenth century.

[447] She was an elemental force, etc. Of this passage Oliver Wendell Holmes said that Emerson "speaks of woman in language that seems to pant for rhythm and rhyme."

[448] Byzantine. An ornate style of architecture developed in the fourth and fifth centuries, marked especially by its use of gold and color.

[449] Golden Book. In a book, called "the Golden Book," were recorded the names of all the children of Venetian noblemen.

[450] Schiraz. A province of Persia famous especially for its roses, wine, and nightingales, and described by the poets as a place of ideal beauty.

[451] Osman. The name given by Emerson in his journal and essays to his ideal man, one subject to the same conditions as himself.

[452] Koran. The sacred book of the Mohammedans.

[453] Jove. Jupiter, the supreme god of Roman mythology.

[454] Silenus. In Greek mythology, the leader of the satyrs. This fable, which Emerson credits to tradition, was original.

[455] Her owl. The owl was the bird sacred to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.

GIFTS

[456] This essay was first printed in the periodical called The Dial.

It was a part of Emerson's philosophic faith that there is no such thing as giving,—everything that belongs to a man or that he ought to have, will come to him. But in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, Emerson was a gracious giver and receiver. In his family the old New England custom of New Year's presents was kept up to his last days. His presents were accompanied with verses to be read before the gift was opened.

[457] Into chancery. The phrase "in chancery," means in litigation, as an estate, in a court of equity.

[458] Cocker. Spoil, indulge,—a word now little used.

[459] Fruits are acceptable gifts. Emerson took especial pleasure in the beauty of fruits and the thought of how they had been evolved from useless, insipid seed cases.

[460] To let the petitioner, etc. We can hardly imagine Emerson's asking a gift or favor. He often quoted the words of Landor, an English writer: "The highest price you can pay for a thing is to ask for it."

[461] Furies. In Roman mythology, three goddesses who sought out and punished evil-doers.

[462] A man's biography, etc. Emerson wrote in his journal: "Long ago I wrote of gifts and neglected a capital example. John Thoreau, Jr. [who, like his brother Henry, was a lover of nature] one day put a bluebird's box on my barn,—fifteen years ago it must be,—and there it still is, with every summer a melodious family in it adorning the place and singing its praises. There's a gift for you which cost the giver no money, but nothing which he bought could have been as good."

[463] Sin offering. Under the Hebrew law, a sacrifice or offering for sin. See Leviticus xxiii. 19. Explain what Emerson means here by the word.

[464] Blackmail. What is "blackmail"? How may Christmas gifts, for instance, become a species of blackmail?

[465] Brother, if Jove, etc. In the Greek legend, Epimetheus gives this advice to his brother Prometheus. The lines are taken from a translation of Works and Days, by the Greek poet, Hesiod.

[466] Timons. Here used in the sense of wealthy givers. Timon, the hero of Shakespeare's play, Timon of Athens, wasted his fortune in lavish gifts and entertainments, and in his poverty was exposed to the ingratitude of those whom he had served. He became morose and died in miserable retirement.

[467] It is a very onerous business, etc. One of Emerson's favorite passages in the essays of Montaigne, a French writer, was this: "Oh, how am I obliged to Almighty God, who has been pleased that I should immediately receive all I have from his bounty, and particularly reserved all my obligation to himself! How instantly do I beg of his holy compassion that I may never owe a real thanks to anyone. O happy liberty in which I have thus far lived! May it continue with me to the last. I endeavor to have no need of any one."

When Emerson, in his old age, had his house injured by fire, his friends contributed funds to repair it and to send him to England. The gift was proffered graciously and accepted gratefully.

[468] Buddhist. A follower of Buddha, a Hindoo religious teacher of the fifth century before Christ.

NATURE

[469] Nature. Emerson's first published volume was a little book of essays, entitled Nature, which appeared in 1836. In the years which followed, he thought more deeply on the subject and, according to his custom, made notes about it and entries in his journals. In the winter of 1843 he delivered a lecture on Relation to Nature, and it is probable that this essay is built up from that. The plan of it, however, had been long in his mind: In 1840 he wrote in his journal: "I think I must do these eyes of mine the justice to write a new chapter on Nature. This delight we all take in every show of night or day or field or forest or sea or city, down to the lowest particulars, is not without sequel, though we be as yet only wishers and gazers, not at all knowing what we want. We are predominated here as elsewhere by an upper wisdom, and resemble those great discoverers who are haunted for years, sometimes from infancy, with a passion for the fact, or class of facts in which the secret lies which they are destined to unlock, and they let it not go until the blessing is won. So these sunsets and starlights, these swamps and rocks, these bird notes and animal forms off which we cannot get our eyes and ears, but hover still, as moths round a lamp, are no doubt a Sanscrit cipher covering the whole religious history of the universe, and presently we shall read it off into action and character. The pastures are full of ghosts for me, the morning woods full of angels."

[470] There are days, etc. The passage in Emerson's journal is hardly less beautiful. Under date of October 30, 1841, he wrote: "On this wonderful day when heaven and earth seem to glow with magnificence, and all the wealth of all the elements is put under contribution to make the world fine, as if Nature would indulge her offspring, it seemed ungrateful to hide in the house. Are there not dull days enough in the year for you to write and read in, that you should waste this glittering season when Florida and Cuba seem to have left their glittering seats and come to visit us with all their shining hours, and almost we expect to see the jasmine and cactus burst from the ground instead of these last gentians and asters which have loitered to attend this latter glory of the year? All insects are out, all birds come forth, the very cattle that lie on the ground seem to have great thoughts, and Egypt and India look from their eyes."

[471] Halcyons. Halcyon days, ones of peace and tranquillity; anciently, days of calm weather in mid-winter, when the halcyon, or kingfisher, was supposed to brood. It was fabled that this bird laid its eggs in a nest that floated on the sea, and that it charmed the winds and waves to make them calm while it brooded.

[472] Indian Summer. Calm, dry, hazy weather which comes in the autumn in America. The Century Dictionary says it was called Indian Summer because the season was most marked in the sections of the upper eastern Mississippi valley inhabited by Indians about the time the term became current.

[473] Gabriel. One of the seven archangels. The Hebrew name means "God is my strong one."

[474] Uriel. Another of the seven archangels; the name means "Light of God."

[475] Converts all trees to wind-harps. Compare with this passage the lines in Emerson's poem, Woodnotes:

"And the countless leaves of the pines are strings
Tuned to the lay the wood-god sings."

[476] The village. Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson's home the greater part of the time from 1832 till his death.

[477] I go with my friend, etc. With Henry Thoreau, the lover of Nature.

[478] Our little river. The Concord river.

[479] Novitiate and probation. Explain the meaning of these words, in the Roman Catholic Church. What does Emerson mean by them here?

[480] Villegiatura. The Italian name for a season spent in country pleasures.

[481] Hanging gardens. The hanging gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the world.

[482] Versailles. A royal residence near Paris, with beautiful formal gardens.

[483] Paphos. A beautiful city on the island of Cyprus, where was situated a temple of Astarte, or Venus.

[484] Ctesiphon. One of the chief cities of ancient Persia, the site of a magnificent royal palace.

[485] Notch Mountains. Probably the White Mountains near Crawford Notch, a deep, narrow valley which is often called "The Notch."

[486] Æolian harp. A stringed instrument from which sound is drawn by the passing of the wind over its strings. It was named for Æolus, the god of the winds, in Greek mythology.

[487] Dorian. Dorus was one of the four divisions of Greece: the word is here used in a general sense for Grecian.

[488] Apollo. In Greek and Roman mythology, the sun god, who presided over music, poetry, and healing.

[489] Diana. In Roman mythology, the goddess of the moon devoted to the chase.

[490] Edens. Beautiful, sinless places,—like the garden of Eden.

[491] Tempes. Places like the lovely valley of Tempe in Thessaly, Greece.

[492] Como Lake. A lake of northern Italy, celebrated for its beauty.

[493] Madeira Islands. Where are these islands, famous for picturesque beauty and balmy atmosphere?

[494] Common. What is a common?

[495] Campagna. The plain near Rome.

[496] Dilettantism. Define this word and explain its use here.

[497] "Wreaths" and "Flora's Chaplets." About the time that Emerson was writing his essays, volumes of formal, artificial verses were very fashionable, more as parlor ornaments than as literature. Two such volumes were A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England and The Floral Offering by Mrs. Frances Osgood, a New England writer.

[498] Pan. In Greek mythology, the god of woods, fields, flocks, and shepherds.

[499] The multitude of false cherubs, etc. Explain the meaning of this sentence. If true money were valueless, would people make false money?

[500] Proteus. In Greek mythology, a sea god who had the power of assuming different shapes. If caught and held fast, however, he was forced to assume his own shape and answer the questions put to him.

[501] Mosaic ... Schemes. The conception of the world as given in Genesis on which the law of Moses, the great Hebrew lawgiver, was founded.

[502] Ptolemaic schemes. The system of geography and astronomy taught in the second century by Ptolemy of Alexandria; it was accepted till the sixteenth century, when the Copernican system was established. Ptolemy believed that the sun, planets, and stars revolve around the earth; Copernicus taught that the planets revolve around the sun.

[503] Flora. In Roman mythology, the goddess of the spring and of flowers.

[504] Fauna. In Roman mythology, the goddess of fields and shepherds; she represents the fruitfulness of the earth.

[505] Ceres. The Roman goddess of grain and harvest, corresponding to the Greek goddess, Demeter.

[506] Pomona. The Roman goddess of fruit trees and gardens.

[507] All duly arrive. Emerson deducts from nature the doctrine of evolution. What is its teaching?

[508] Plato. (See note 36.)

[509] Himalaya Mountain chains. (See note 193.)

[510] Franklin. Give an account of Benjamin Franklin, the famous American scientist and patriot. What did he prove about lightening?

[511] Dalton. John Dalton was an English chemist who, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, perfected the atomic theory, that is, the theory that all chemical combinations take place in certain ways between the atoms, or ultimate particles, of bodies.

[512] Davy. (See note 69.)

[513] Black. Joseph Black, a Scotch chemist who made valuable discoveries about latent heat and carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid gas.

[514] The astronomers said, etc. Beginning with this passage, several pages of this essay was published in 1844, under the title of Tantalus, in the next to the last number of The Dial, which Emerson edited.

[515] Centrifugal, centripetal. Define these words.

[516] Stoics. See "Stoicism," 331.

[517] Luther. (See note 188.)

[518] Jacob Behmen. A German mystic of the sixteenth century; his name is usually written Boehme.

[519] George Fox. (See note 202.)

[520] James Naylor. An English religious enthusiast of the seventeenth century; he was first a Puritan and later a Quaker.

[521] Operose. Laborious.

[522] Outskirt and far-off reflection, etc. Compare with this passage Emerson's poem, The Forerunners.

[523] [OE]dipus. In Greek mythology, the King of Thebes who solved the riddle of the Sphinx, a fabled monster.

[524] Prunella. A widely scattered plant, called self-heal, because a decoction of its leaves and stems was, and to some extent is, valued as an application to wounds. An editor comments on the fact that during the last years of Emerson's life "the little blue self-heal crept into the grass before his study window."

SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET

[525] Shakespeare; or the Poet is one of seven essays on great men in various walks of life, published in 1850 under the title of Representative Men. These essays were first delivered as lectures in Boston in the winter of 1845, and were repeated two years later before English audiences. They must have been especially interesting to those Englishmen who had, seven years before, heard Emerson's friend, Carlyle, deliver his six lectures on great men whom he selected as representative ones. These lectures were published under the title of Heroes and Hero-Worship. You should read the latter part of Carlyle's lecture on The Hero as Poet and compare what he says about Shakespeare with Emerson's words. Both Emerson and Carlyle reverenced the great English poet as "the master of mankind." Even in serious New England, the plays of Shakespeare were found upon the bookshelf beside religious tracts and doctrinal treatises. There the boy Emerson found them and learned to love them, and the man Emerson loved them but the more. It was as a record of personal experiences that he wrote in his journal: "Shakespeare fills us with wonder the first time we approach him. We go away, and work and think, for years, and come again,—he astonishes us anew. Then, having drank deeply and saturated us with his genius, we lose sight of him for another period of years. By and by we return, and there he stands immeasurable as at first. We have grown wiser, but only that we should see him wiser than ever. He resembles a high mountain which the traveler sees in the morning and thinks he shall quickly near it and pass it and leave it behind. But he journeys all day till noon, till night. There still is the dim mountain close by him, having scarce altered its bearings since the morning light."

[526] Genius. Here instead of speaking as in Friendship, see note 286, of the genius or spirit supposed to preside over each man's life, Emerson mentions the guardian spirit of human kind.

[527] Shakespeare's youth, etc. It is impossible to appreciate or enjoy this essay without having some clear general information about the condition of the English people and English literature in the glorious Elizabethan age in which Shakespeare lived. Consult, for this information, some brief history of England and a comprehensive English literature.

[528] Puritans. Strict Protestants who became so powerful in England that in the time of the Commonwealth they controlled the political and religious affairs of the country.

[529] Anglican Church. The Established Church of England; the Episcopal church.

[530] Punch. The chief character in a puppet show, hence the puppet show itself.

[531] Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, etc. For an account of these dramatists consult a text book on English literature. The English drama seems to have begun in the Middle Ages with what were called Miracle plays, which were scenes from Bible history; about the same time were performed the Mystery plays, which dramatized the lives of saints. These were followed by the Moralities, plays in which were personified abstract virtues and vices. The first step in the creation of the regular drama was taken by Heywood, who composed some farcical plays called Interludes. The people of the sixteenth century were fond of pageants, shows in which classical personages were introduced, and Masques, which gradually developed from pageants into dramas accompanied with music. About the middle of the sixteenth century, rose the English drama,—comedy, tragedy, and historical plays. The chief among the group of dramatists who attained fame before Shakespeare began to write were Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, and Peele. Ben Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher rank next to Shakespeare among his contemporaries, and among the other dramatists of the period were Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Heywood, Middleton, Ford, and Massinger.

[532] At the time when, etc. Probably about 1585.

[533] Tale of Troy. Drama founded on the Trojan war. The subject of famous poems by Latin and Greek poets.

[534] Death of Julius Cæsar. An account of the plots which ended in the assassination of the great Roman general.

[535] Plutarch. See note on Heroism(264). Shakespeare, like the earlier dramatists, drew freely on Plutarch's Lives for material.

[536] Brut. A poetical version of the legendary history of Britain, by Layamon. Its hero is Brutus, a mythical King of Britain.

[537] Arthur. A British King of the sixth century, around whose life and deeds so many legends have grown up that some historians say he, too, was a myth. He is the center of the great cycle of romances told in prose in Mallory's Morte d'Arthur and in poetry in Tennyson's Idylls of the King.

[538] The royal Henries. Among the dramas popular in Shakespeare's day which he retouched or rewrote are the historical plays. Henry IV., First and Second Parts; Henry V; Henry VI., First, Second, and Third Parts; and Henry VIII.

[539] Italian tales. Italian literature was very popular in Shakespeare's day, and authors drew freely from it for material, especially from the Decameron, a famous collection of a hundred tales, by Boccaccio, a poet of the fourteenth century.

[540] Spanish voyages. In the sixteenth century, Spain was still a power upon the high seas, and the tales of her conquests and treasures in the New World were like tales of romance.

[541] Prestige. Can you give an English equivalent for this French word?

[542] Which no single genius, etc. In the same way, some critics assure us, the poems credited to the Greek poet, Homer, were built up by a number of poets.

[543] Malone. An Irish critic and scholar of the eighteenth century, best known by his edition of Shakespeare's plays.

[544] Wolsey's Soliloquy. See Shakespeare's Henry VIII. iii, 2. Cardinal Wolsey was prime minister of England in the reign of Henry VIII.

[545] Scene with Cromwell. See Henry VIII. iii, 2. Thomas Cromwell was the son of an English blacksmith; he rose to be lord high chamberlain of England in the reign of Henry VIII., but, incurring the King's displeasure, was executed on a charge of treason.

[546] Account of the coronation. See Henry VIII. iv, 1.

[547] Compliment to Queen Elizabeth. See Henry VIII. v, 5.

[548] Bad rhythm. Too much importance must not be attached to these matters in deciding authorship, as critics disagree about them.

[549] Value his memory, etc. The Greeks, in appreciation of the value of memory to the poet, represented the Muses as the daughters of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory.

[550] Homer. A Greek poet to whom is assigned the authorship of the two greatest Greek poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey; he is said to have lived about a thousand years before Christ.

[551] Chaucer. (See note 33.)

[552] Saadi. A Persian poet, supposed to have lived in the thirteenth century. His best known poems are his odes.

[553] Presenting Thebes, etc. This quotation is from Milton's poem, Il Penseroso. Milton here names the three most popular subjects of Greek tragedy,—the story of [OE]dipus, the ill-fated King of Thebes who slew his father; the tale of the descendants of Pelops, King of Pisa, who seemed born to woe—Agamemnon was one of his grandsons; the third subject was the tale of Troy and the heroes of the Trojan war,—called "divine" because the Greeks represented even the gods as taking part in the contest.

[554] Pope. (See note 88.)

[555] Dryden. (See note 35.)

[556] Chaucer is a huge borrower. Taine, the French critic, says on this subject: "Chaucer was capable of seeking out in the old common forest of the Middle Ages, stories and legends, to replant them in his own soil and make them send out new shoots.... He has the right and power of copying and translating because by dint of retouching he impresses ... his original work. He recreates what he imitates."

[557] Lydgate. John Lydgate was an English poet who lived a generation later than Chaucer; in his Troy Book and other poems he probably borrowed from the sources used by Chaucer; he called himself "Chaucer's disciple."

[558] Caxton. William Caxton, the English author, more famous as the first English printer, was not born until after Chaucer's death. The work from which Emerson supposes the poet to have borrowed Caxton's translation of Recueil des Histoires de Troye, the first printed English book, appeared about 1474.

[559] Guido di Colonna. A Sicilian poet and historian of the thirteenth century. Chaucer in his House of Fame placed in his vision "on a pillar higher than the rest, Homer and Livy, Dares the Phrygian, Guido Colonna, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the other historians of the war of Troy."

[560] Dares Phrygius. A Latin account of the fall of Troy, written about the fifth century, which pretends to be a translation of a lost work on the fall of Troy by Dares, a Trojan priest mentioned in Homer's Iliad.

[561] Ovid. A Roman poet who lived about the time of Christ, whose best-known work is the Metamorphoses, founded on classical legends.

[562] Statius. A Roman poet of the first century after Christ.

[563] Petrarch. An Italian poet of the fourteenth century.

[564] Boccaccio. An Italian novelist and poet of the fourteenth century. See note on "Italian tales," 539. It is supposed that the plan of the Decameron suggested the similar but far superior plan of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

[565] Provençal poets. The poets of Provençe, a province of the southeastern part of France. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated for its lyric poets, called troubadours.

[566] Romaunt of the Rose, etc. Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, written during the period of French influence, is an incomplete and abbreviated translation of a French poem of the thirteenth century, Roman de la Rose, the first part of which was written by William of Loris and the latter by John of Meung, or Jean de Meung.

[567] Troilus and Creseide, etc. Chaucer ascribes the Italian poem which he followed in his Troilus and Creseide to an unknown "Lollius of Urbino"; the source of the poem, however, is Il Filostrato, by Boccaccio, the Italian poet already mentioned. Chaucer's poem is far more than a translation; more than half is entirely original, and it is a powerful poem, showing profound knowledge of the Italian poets, whose influence with him superseded the French poets.

[568] The Cock and the Fox. The Nun's Priest's Tale in the Canterbury Tales was an original treatment of the Roman de Renart, of Marie of France, a French poet of the twelfth century.

[569] House of Fame, etc. The plan of the House of Fame, written during the period of Chaucer's Italian influence, shows the influence of Dante; the general idea of the poem is from Ovid, the Roman poet.

[570] Gower. John Gower was an English poet, Chaucer's contemporary and friend; the two poets went to the same sources for poetic materials, but Chaucer made no such use of Gower's works as we would infer from this passage. Emerson relied on his memory for facts, and hence made mistakes, as here in the instances of Lydgate, Caxton, and Gower.

[571] Westminster, Washington. What legislative body assembles at Westminster Palace, London? What at Washington?

[572] Sir Robert Peel. An English statesman who died in 1850, not long after Representative Men was published.

[573] Webster. Daniel Webster, an American statesman and orator who was living when this essay was written.

[574] Locke. John Locke. (See note 18.)

[575] Rousseau. Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher of the eighteenth century.

[576] Homer. (See note 550.)

[577] Menn. Menn, or Mann, was in Sanscrit one of fourteen legendary beings; the one referred to by Emerson, Mann Vaivasvata was supposed to be the author of the laws of Mann, a collection made about the second century.

[578] Saadi or Sadi. (See note 552.)

[579] Milton. Of this great English poet and prose writer of the seventeenth century, Emerson says: "No man can be named whose mind still acts on the cultivated intellect of England and America with an energy comparable to that of Milton. As a poet Shakespeare undoubtedly transcends and far surpasses him in his popularity with foreign nations: but Shakespeare is a voice merely: who and what he was that sang, that sings, we know not."

[580] Delphi. Here, source of prophecy. Delphi was a city in Greece, where was the oracle of Apollo, the most famous of the oracles of antiquity.

[581] Our English Bible. The version made in the reign of King James I. by forty-seven learned divines is a monument of noble English.

[582] Liturgy. An appointed form of worship used in a Christian church,—here, specifically, the service of the Episcopal church. Emerson's mother had been brought up in that church, and though she attended her husband's church, she always loved and read her Episcopal prayer book.

[583] Grotius. Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, statesman, theologian, and poet of the seventeenth century.

[584] Rabbinical forms. The forms used by the rabbis, Jewish doctors or expounders of the law.

[585] Common law. In a general sense, the system of law derived from England, in general use among English-speaking people.

[586] Vedas. The sacred books of the Brahmins.

[587] Æsop's Fables. Fables ascribed to Æsop, a Greek slave who lived in the sixth century before Christ.

[588] Pilpay, or Bidpai. Indian sage to whom were ascribed some fables. From an Arabic translation, these passed into European languages and were used by La Fontaine, the French fabulist.

[589] Arabian Nights. The Arabian Nights' Entertainment or A Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Oriental tales, the plan and name of which are very ancient.

[590] Cid. The Romances of the Cid, the story of the Spanish national hero, mentioned in note on Heroism 139:5, was written about the thirteenth century by an unknown author; it supplied much of the material for two Spanish chronicles and Spanish and French tragedies written later on the same subject.

[591] Iliad. The poem in which the Greek, poet, Homer, describes the siege and fall of Troy. Emerson here expresses the view adopted by many scholars that it was the work, not of one, but of many men.

[592] Robin Hood. The ballads about Robin Hood, an English outlaw and popular hero of the twelfth century.

[593] Scottish Minstrelsy. The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of original and collected poems, published by Sir Walter Scott in 1802.

[594] Shakespeare Society. The Shakespeare Society, founded in 1841, was dissolved in 1853. In 1874 The New Shakespeare Society was founded.

[595] Mysteries. See "Kyd, Marlowe, etc." 531.

[596] Ferrex and Porrex, or Gorboduc. The first regular English tragedy, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, printed in 1565.

[597] Gammer Gurtor's Needle. One of the first English comedies, written by Bishop Still and printed in 1575.

[598] Whether the boy Shakespeare poached, etc. For a fuller account of the facts of Shakespeare's life, of which some traditions and facts are mentioned here, consult some good biography of the poet.

[599] Queen Elizabeth. Dining her reign, 1558-1603, the English drama rose and attained its height, and there was produced a prose literature hardly inferior to the poetic.

[600] King James. King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England who was Elizabeth's kinsman and successor; he reigned in England from 1603 to 1625.

[601] Essexes. Walter Devereux was a brave English gentleman whom Elizabeth made Earl of Essex in 1572. His son Robert, the second Earl of Essex, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth's.

[602] Leicester. The Earl of Leicester, famous in Shakespeare's time, was Robert Dudley, an English courtier, politician, and general, the favorite of Queen Elizabeth.

[603] Burleighs or Burghleys: William Cecil, baron of Burghley, was an English statesman, who, for forty years, was Elizabeth's chief minister.

[604] Buckinghams. George Villiers, the first duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier and politician, a favorite of James I. and Charles I.

[605] Tudor dynasty. The English dynasty of sovereigns descended on the male side from Owen Tudor. It began with Henry VII. and ended with Elizabeth.

[606] Bacon. Consult English literature and history for an account of the great statesman and author, Francis Bacon, "the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."

[607] Ben Jonson, etc. In his Timber or Discoveries, Ben Jonson, a famous classical dramatist contemporary with Shakespeare, says: "I loved the man and do honor his memory on this side idolatry as much as any. He was indeed honest and of an open and free nature: had an excellent fancy; brave notions and gentle expressions: wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped.... His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so, too. Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter.... But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned."

[608] Sir Henry Wotton. An English diplomatist and author of wide culture.

[609] The following persons, etc. The persons enumerated were all people of note of the seventeenth century. Sir Philip Sidney, Earl of Essex, Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Milton, Sir Henry Vane, Isaac Walton, Dr. John Donne, Abraham Cowley, Charles Cotton, John Pym, and John Hales were Englishmen, scholars, statesmen, and authors. Theodore Beza was a French theologian; Isaac Casaubon was a French-Swiss scholar; Roberto Berlarmine was an Italian cardinal; Johann Kepler was a German astronomer; Francis Vieta was a French mathematician; Albericus Gentilis was an Italian jurist; Paul Sarpi was an Italian historian; Arminius was a Dutch theologian.

[610] Many others whom doubtless, etc. Emerson here enumerates some famous English authors of the same period, not mentioned in the preceeding list.

[611] Pericles. See note on Heroism, 352.

[612] Lessing. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a German critic and poet of the eighteenth century.

[613] Wieland. Christopher Martin Wieland was a German contemporary of Lessing's, who made a prose translation into German of Shakespeare's plays.

[614] Schlegel. August Wilhelm von Schlegel, a German critic and poet, who about the first of the nineteenth century translated some of Shakespeare's plays into classical German.

[615] Hamlet. The hero of Shakespeare's play of the same name.

[616] Coleridge. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet, author of critical lectures and notes on Shakespeare.

[617] Goethe. (See note 85.)

[618] Blackfriar's Theater. A famous London theater in which nearly all the great dramas of the Elizabethan age were performed.

[619] Stratford. Stratford-on-Avon, a little town in Warwickshire, England, where Shakespeare was born and where he spent his last years.

[620] Macbeth. One of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, written about 1606.

[621] Malone, Warburton, Dyce, and Collier. English scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who edited the works of Shakespeare.

[622] Covent Garden, Drury Lane, the Park, and Tremont: The leading London theaters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

[623] Betterton, Garrick, Kemble, Kean, and Macready, famous British actors of the Shakespearian parts.

[624] The Hamlet of a famed performer, etc. Macready. Emerson said to a friend: "I see you are one of the happy mortals who are capable of being carried away by an actor of Shakespeare. Now, whenever I visit the theater to witness the performance of one of his dramas, I am carried away by the poet."

[625] What may this mean, etc. Hamlet, I. 4.

[626] Midsummer Night's Dream. One of Shakespeare's plays.

[627] The forest of Arden. In which is laid, the scene of Shakespeare's play, As You Like It.

[628] The nimble air of Scone Castle. It was of the air of Inverness, not of Scone, that "the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses."—Macbeth, i. 6.

[629] Portia's villa. See the moonlight scene, Merchant of Venice, v. 1.

[630] The antres vost, etc. See Othello, I. 3. "Antres" is an old word, meaning caves, caverns.

[631] Cyclopean architecture. In Greek mythology, the Cyclops were a race of giants. The term 'Cyclopean' is applied here to the architecture of Egypt and India, because of the majestic size of the buildings, and the immense size of the stones used, as if it would require giants to perform such works.

[632] Phidian sculpture. Phidias was a famous Greek sculptor who lived in the age of Pericles and beautified Athens with his works.

[633] Gothic minsters. Churches or cathedrals, built in the Gothic, or pointed, style of architecture which prevailed during the Middle Ages; it owed nothing to the Goths, and this term was originally used in reproach, in the sense of "barbarous."

[634] The Italian painting. In Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries pictorial art was carried to a degree of perfection unknown in any other time or country.

[635] Ballads of Spain and Scotland. The old ballads of these countries are noted for beauty and spirit.

[636] Tripod. Define this word, and explain its appropriateness here.

[637] Aubrey. John Aubrey, an English antiquarian of the seventeenth century.

[638] Rowe. Nicholas Rowe, an English author of the seventeenth century, who wrote a biography of Shakespeare.

[639] Timon. See note on Gifts, 466.

[640] Warwick. An English politician and commander of the fifteenth century, called "the King Maker." He appears in Shakespeare's plays, Henry IV., V., and VI.

[641] Antonio. The Venetian Merchant in Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice.

[642] Talma. François Joseph Talma was a French tragic actor, to whom Napoleon showed favor.

[643] An omnipresent humanity, etc. See what Carlyle has to say on this subject in his Hero as Poet.

[644] Daguerre. Louis Jacques Daguerre, a French painter, one of the inventors of the daguerreotype process, by means of which an image is fixed on a metal plate by the chemical action of light.

[645] Euphuism. The word here has rather the force of euphemism, an entirely different word. Euphuism was an affected ornate style of expression, so called from Euphues, by John Lyly, a sixteenth century master of that style.

[646] Epicurus. A Greek philosopher of the third century before Christ. He was the founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy which taught that pleasure should be man's chief aim and that the highest pleasure is freedom.

[647] Dante. (See note 258.)

[648] Master of the revels, etc. Emerson always expressed thankfulness for "the spirit of joy which Shakespeare had shed over the universe." See what Carlyle says in The Hero as Poet, about Shakespeare's "mirthfulness and love of laughter."

[649] Koran. The Sacred book of the Mohammedans.

[650] Twelfth Night, etc. The names of three bright, merry, or serene plays by Shakespeare.

[651] Egyptian verdict. Emerson used Egyptian probably in the sense of "gipsy." He compares such opinions to the fortunes told by the gipsies.

[652] Tasso. An Italian poet of the sixteenth century.

[653] Cervantes. A Spanish poet and romancer of the sixteenth century, the author of Don Quixote.

[654] Israelite. Such Hebrew prophets as Isaiah and Jeremiah.

[655] German. Such as Luther.

[656] Swede. Such as Swedenborg, the mystic philosopher of the eighteenth century of whom Emerson had already written in Representative Men.

[657] A pilgrim's progress. As described by John Bunyan, the English writer, in his famous Pilgrim's Progress.

[658] Doleful histories of Adam's fall, etc. The subject of Paradise Lost, the great poem by John Milton.

[659] With doomsdays and purgatorial, etc. As described by Dante in his Divine Commedia, an epic about hell, purgatory, and paradise.

PRUDENCE

[660] The essay on Prudence was given as a lecture in the course on Human Culture, in the winter of 1837-8. It was published in the first series of Essays, which appeared in 1841.

[661] Lubricity. The word means literally the state or quality of being slippery; Emerson uses it several times, in its derived sense of "instability."

[662] Love and Friendship. The subjects of the two essays preceding Prudence, in the volume of 1841.

[663] The world is filled with the proverbs, etc. Compare with this passage Emerson's words in Compensation on "the flights of proverbs, whose teaching is as true and as omnipresent as that of birds and flies."

[664] A good wheel or pin. That is, a part of a machine.

[665] The law of polarity. Having two opposite poles, the properties of the one of which are the opposite of the other.

[666] Summer will have its flies. Emerson discoursed with philosophic calm about the impediments and disagreeableness which beset every path; he also accepted them with serenity when he encountered them in his daily life.

[667] The inhabitants of the climates, etc. As a northerner, Emerson naturally felt that the advantage and superiority were with his own section. He expressed in his poems Voluntaries and Mayday views similar to those declared here.

[668] Peninsular campaign. Emerson here refers to the military operations carried on from 1808 to 1814 in Portugal, Spain, and southern France against the French, by the British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces commanded by Wellington. What was the "Peninsular campaign" in American history?

[669] Dr. Johnson is reported to have said, etc. Dr. Samuel Johnson was an eminent English scholar of the eighteenth century. In this, as in many other instances, Emerson quotes from his memory instead of from the book. The words of Dr. Johnson, as reported by his biographer Boswell, are: "Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end."

[670] Rifle. A local name in England and New England for an instrument, on the order of a whetstone, used for sharpening scythes; it is made of wood, covered with fine sand or emery.

[671] Last grand duke of Weimar. Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach is a grand duchy of Germany. The grand duke referred to was Charles Augustus, who died in 1828. He was the friend and patron of the great German authors, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wieland.

[672] The Raphael in the Dresden gallery. The Sistine Madonna, the most famous picture of the great Italian artist, Raphael.

[673] Call a spade a spade. Plutarch, the Greek historian, said, "These Macedonians ... call a spade a spade."

[674] Parts. A favorite eighteenth century term for abilities, talents.

[675] We have found out, etc. Emerson always insisted that morals and intellect should be united. He urged that power and insight are lessened by shortcomings in morals.

[676] Goethe's Tasso. A play by the German poet Goethe, founded on the belief that the imprisonment of Tasso was due to his aspiration to the hand of Leonora d'Este, sister of the duke of Ferrara. Tasso was a famous Italian poet of the seventeenth century.

[677] Richard III. An English king, the last of the Plantagenet line, the hero—or villain—of Shakespeare's historical play, Richard III.

[678] Bifold. Give a simpler word that means the same.

[679] Cæsar. Why is Cæsar the great Roman ruler, given as a type of greatness?

[680] Job. Why is Job, the hero of the Old Testament book of the same name, given as a type of misery?

[681] Poor Richard. Poor Richard's Almanac, published (1732-1757) by Benjamin Franklin was a collection of maxims inculcating prudence and thrift. These were given as the sayings of "Poor Richard."

[682] State Street. A street in Boston, Massachusetts, noted as a financial center.

[683] Stick in a tree between whiles, etc. "Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping."—Scott's Heart of Midlothian. It is said that these were the words of a dying Scotchman to his son.

[684] Minor virtues. Emerson suggests that punctuality and regard for a promise are two of these. Can you name others?

[685] The Latin proverb says, etc. This is quoted from Tacitus, the famous Roman historian.

[686] If he set out to contend, etc. In contention, Emerson holds, the best men would lose their characteristic virtues, —the fearless apostle Paul, his devotion to truth; the gentle disciple John, his loving charity.

[687] Though your views are in straight antagonism, &c. This was Emerson's own method, and by it he won a courteous hearing from those to whom his views were most objectionable.

[688] Consuetudes. Give a simpler word that has the same meaning.

[689] Begin where we will, etc. Explain what Emerson means by this expression.

CIRCLES

[690] This essay first appeared in the first series of Essays, published in 1841. Unlike most of the other essays in the volume, no earlier form of it exists, and it was probably not delivered first as a lecture.

Dr. Richard Garnett says in his Life of Emerson: "The object of this fine essay quaintly entitled Circles is to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn.... Emerson followed his own counsel; he always keeps a reserve of power. His theory of Circles reappears without the least verbal indebtedness to himself in the splendid essay on Love."

[691] St. Augustine. A celebrated father of the Latin church, who flourished in the fourth century. His most famous work is his Confessions, an autobiographical volume of religious meditations.

[692] Another dawn risen on mid-noon. "Another morn has risen on mid-noon." Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V.

[693] Greek sculpture. The greatest development of the art of sculpture that the world has ever known was that which took place in Greece, with Athens as the center, in the fifth century before Christ. The masterpieces which remain are the models on which modern art formed itself.

[694] Greek letters. In literature—in drama, philosophy and history—Greece attained an excellence as signal as in art. Emerson as a scholar, felt that the literature of Greece was more permanent than its art. Would an artist be apt to take this view?

[695] New arts destroy the old, etc. Tell the ways in which the improvements and inventions mentioned by Emerson have been superseded by others; give the reasons. Mention other similar cases of more recent date.

[696] The life of man is a self-evolving circle, etc. "Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence."—Emerson, in Nature.

[697] The heart refuses to be imprisoned. It is a superstition current in many countries that an evil spirit cannot escape from a circle drawn round it.

[698] Crass. Gross; coarse.

[699] The continual effort to raise himself above himself, etc.

"Unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!"
Samuel Daniel.

[700] If he were high enough, etc.

Have I a lover
Who is noble and free?—
I would he were nobler
Than to love me.Emerson,The Sphinx.

[701] Aristotle and Plato. Plato was a famous Greek philosopher who flourished in the fourth century before Christ. He was the disciple of Socrates, the teacher of Aristotle, and the founder of the academic school of philosophy. His exposition of idealism was founded on the teachings of Socrates. Aristotle, another famous Greek philosopher, was for twenty years the pupil of Plato. He founded the peripatetic school of philosophy, and his writing dealt with all the then known branches of science.

[702] Berkeley. George Berkeley was a British clergyman of the eighteenth century. He was the author of works on philosophy which are marked by extreme subjective idealism.

[703] Termini. Boundaries or marks to indicate boundaries. In Roman mythology, Terminus was the god who presided over boundaries or landmarks. He is represented with a human head, but without feet or arms,—to indicate that he never moved from his place.

[704] Pentecost. One of three great Jewish festivals. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the infant Christian church, with the gift of tongues. See Acts ii. 1-20.

[705] Hodiernal. Belonging to our present day.

[706] Punic. Of Carthage, a famous ancient city, and state of northern Africa. Carthage was the rival of Rome, but was, after long warfare, overcome in the second century before Christ.

[707] In like manner, etc. Emerson always urged that in order to get the best from all, one must pass from affairs to thought, society to solitude, books to nature.

"See thou bring not to field or stone
The fancies found in books;
Leave authors' eyes, and fetch your own,
To brave the landscape's look." Emerson, Waldeinsamkeit.

[708] Petrarch. (See note 563.)

[709] Ariosto. A famous Italian author of the sixteenth century, who wrote comedies, satires, and a metrical romance, Orlando Furioso.

[710] "Then shall also the Son", etc. See 1 Corinthians xv. 28: Does Emerson quote the passage verbatim?

[711] These manifold tenacious qualities, etc. It is remarked of Emerson that the idea of the symbolism of nature which he received from Plato, was the source of much of his pleasure in Swedenborg, the Swedish mystic philosopher. Emerson says in his volume on Nature: "The noblest ministry of nature is to stand as an apparition of God."

[712] "Forgive his crimes," etc. This is quoted from Night Thoughts by the English didactic poet, Edward Young.

[713] Pyrrhonism. A doctrine held by a follower of Pyrrho, a Greek philosopher of the third century before Christ, who founded the sceptical school. He taught that it is impossible to attain truth, and that men should be indifferent to all external circumstances.

[714] I own I am gladdened, etc. Emerson always held fast to the consoling thought that there was no evil without good, none out of which Good did not or could not come.

[715] Sempiternal. Everlasting; eternal.

[716] Oliver Cromwell. An Englishman of the middle classes who became the military and civil leader of the English Revolution of the seventeenth century. He refused the title of king; but as Lord Protector of the English commonwealth, he exercised royal power.

NATURE

By R. W. Emerson

CONTENTS

| INTRODUCTION | 1
CHAPTER I. | NATURE | 8
CHAPTER II. | COMMODITY | 10
CHAPTER III. | BEAUTY | 13
CHAPTER IV. | LANGUAGE | 23
CHAPTER V. | DISCIPLINE | 34
CHAPTER VI. | IDEALISM | 45
CHAPTER VII. | SPIRIT | 59
CHAPTER VIII. | PROSPECTS | 64

THE CONDUCT OF LIFE

By R. W. Emerson

CONTENTS

Fate
Power
Wealth
Culture
Behavior
Worship
Considerations by the Way
Beauty
Illusions

ENGLISH TRAITS

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. | FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND.
CHAPTER II. | VOYAGE TO ENGLAND.
CHAPTER III. | LAND.
CHAPTER IV. | RACE.
CHAPTER V. | ABILITY.
CHAPTER VI. | MANNERS.
CHAPTER VII. | TRUTH.
CHAPTER VIII. | CHARACTER.
CHAPTER IX. | COCKAYNE.
CHAPTER X. | WEALTH.
CHAPTER XI. | ARISTOCRACY.
CHAPTER XII. | UNIVERSITIES.
CHAPTER XIII. | RELIGION.
CHAPTER XIV. | LITERATURE.
CHAPTER XV. | THE "TIMES."
CHAPTER XVI. | STONEHENGE.
CHAPTER XVII. | PERSONAL.
CHAPTER XVIII. | RESULT.
CHAPTER XIX. | SPEECH AT MANCHESTER.

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Table of Contents

- INDEX OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG WORKS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON

- Compiled by David Widger

- CONTENTS

- Click on the ## before many of the titles to view a linked table of contents for that volume. Click on the title itself to open the original online file.

- TABLES OF CONTENTS OF VOLUMES

- ESSAYS, FIRST SERIES

- CONTENTS

- ESSAYS, SECOND SERIES

- CONTENTS

- REPRESENTATIVE MEN

- SEVEN LECTURES

- CONTENTS

- ESSAYS

- CONTENTS
- NOTES THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR
- COMPENSATION
- SELF-RELIANCE
- FRIENDSHIP
- HEROISM
- MANNERS
- GIFTS
- NATURE
- SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET
- PRUDENCE
- CIRCLES

- NATURE

- CONTENTS

- THE CONDUCT OF LIFE

- CONTENTS

- ENGLISH TRAITS

- CONTENTS

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE