Emerson's Essays Part 6

[Footnote 149: "The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also."--EMERSON, Behavior.]

[Footnote 150: Plato (429-347 B.C.), (See note 36.)]

[Footnote 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, G.o.d-gifted organ-voice of England, Milton, a name to resound for ages."--TENNYSON.

[Footnote 152: "The great poet makes feel our own wealth."--EMERSON, The Over-Soul.]

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

[Footnote 154: "The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity."--EMERSON, _Address to the Senior Cla.s.s in Divinity College, Cambridge_.]

[Footnote 155: "For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the soul within." TENNYSON, In Memoriam, V. I.

[Footnote 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."

[Footnote 157: Chaos ([Greek: Chaos]), 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.]

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

[Footnote 159: Four or five. Supply the noun.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 163: "Lethe, the river of oblivion."--Paradise Lost. Oblivion, forgetfulness.]

[Footnote 164: Who. What is the construction?]

[Footnote 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.)]

[Footnote 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.

[Footnote 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.

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

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

[Footnote 172: Read Emerson's essay on Greatness.]

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

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

[Footnote 175: With, notwithstanding, in spite of.]

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

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

[Footnote 178: "Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve; hast thou not two eyes of thy own?"--CARLYLE.]

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

[Footnote 180: "Nihil tam incertum nec tam inaestimabile est quam animi mult.i.tudinis."--LIVY, x.x.xi. 34.

"Mobile mutatur semper c.u.m principe vulgus." CLAUDIa.n.u.s, De IV. Consul. Honorii, 302.

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

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

[Footnote 183: Orbit, course in life.]

[Footnote 184: Somewhat, something.]

[Footnote 185: See Genesis, x.x.xix. 12.]

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

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 194: Alexandrian stanza. The Alexandrian line consists of twelve syllables (iambic hexameter). Neither the acrostic nor the Alexandrine has the property a.s.signed 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: [Greek: "Nipson anomemata me monan opsin,"]

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

[Footnote 196: Scorn eyes, scorn observers.]

[Footnote 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."]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 199: Spartan. The ancient Spartans were noted for their courage and fort.i.tude.]

[Footnote 200: Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.), the great Roman general, statesman, orator, and author.]

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 206: In the story of Abou Ha.s.san or The Sleeper Awakened in the Arabian Nights Abou Ha.s.san 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.]

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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."

[Footnote 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 s.h.i.+nes to-day also."--EMERSON, _Introd. to Nature, Addresses, etc._]

[Footnote 214: Explain the thought in this sentence.]

[Footnote 215: Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.]

[Footnote 216: Agent, active, acting.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 220: Explain the meaning of this sentence.]

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

[Footnote 222: "The truth shall make you free."--John, viii. 32.]

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

[Footnote 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.]

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 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? ]

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

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

[Footnote 233: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not G.o.d speak with us, lest we die."--Exodus, xx. 19. Compare also the parallel pa.s.sage in Deuteronomy, v. 25-27.]

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

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