Emerson's Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson (best free ebook reader for android TXT) π
Froude in his famous "Life of Carlyle" gives an interesting description of Emerson's visit to the Carlyles in Scotland:
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[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."βJohn, 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 thatβto 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]
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."βExodus, 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."βEmerson, 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]
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.
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,βlike 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,βbut 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!"βDe 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 (ββ - 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.
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
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