Essays By Ralph Waldo Emerson Part 27

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 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."]

[Footnote 682: State Street. A street in Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, noted as a financial center.]

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

CIRCLES

[Footnote 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 ent.i.tled _Circles_ is to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation ill.u.s.trates 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_."]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 692: Another dawn risen on mid-noon. "Another morn has risen on mid-noon." Milton, _Paradise Lost_, Book V.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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?]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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_.]

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

[Footnote 698: Cra.s.s. Gross; coa.r.s.e.]

[Footnote 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.

[Footnote 700: If he were high enough, etc.

Have I a lover Who is n.o.ble and free?-- I would he were n.o.bler Than to love me.--EMERSON, _The Sphinx._

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 703: Termini. Boundaries or marks to indicate boundaries. In Roman mythology, Terminus was the G.o.d 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 705: Hodiernal. Belonging to our present day.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 707: In like manner, etc. Emerson always urged that in order to get the best from all, one must pa.s.s 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_.

[Footnote 708: Petrarch. (See note 563.)]

[Footnote 709: Ariosto. A famous Italian author of the sixteenth century, who wrote comedies, satires, and a metrical romance, _Orlando Furioso_.]

[Footnote 710: "Then shall also the Son", etc. See 1 Corinthians xv.

28: Does Emerson quote the pa.s.sage verbatim?]