Emerson's Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson (best free ebook reader for android TXT) ๐
Froude in his famous "Life of Carlyle" gives an interesting description of Emerson's visit to the Carlyles in Scotland:
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[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. Franรงois 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 heroโor villainโof Shakespeare's historical play, Richard III.
[678] Bifold. Give a simpler word that means the same.
[679] Cรฆsar. Why is Cรฆsar 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."โScott'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, โthe 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 literatureโin drama, philosophy and historyโGreece 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."โEmerson, 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.
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