Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson

[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.

[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]

[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:

[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.

[167] Suffrage, approval.

[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.

[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:

[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:

[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]

[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]

[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.

[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:

[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.