Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
would lead one to imagine. 'Take care, papa,' cried his little son,
seeing him at work with a spade, 'you will dig your leg.'"]
[Footnote 59: John Flamsteed (1646-1719). An eminent English
astronomer. He appears to have been the first to understand the theory
of the equation of time. He passed his life in patient observation and
determined the position of 2884 stars.]
[Footnote 60: Sir William Herschel (1738-1822). One of the greatest
astronomers that any age or nation has produced. Brought up to the
profession of music, it was not until he was thirty years old that he
turned his attention to astronomy. By rigid economy he obtained a
telescope, and in 1781 discovered the planet Uranus. This great
discovery gave him great fame and other substantial advantages. He was
made private astronomer to the king and received a pension. His
discoveries were so far in advance of his time, they had so little
relation with those of his predecessors, that he may almost be said
to have created a new science by revealing the immensity of the scale
on which the universe is constructed.]
[Footnote 61: Nebulous. In astronomy a nebula is a luminous patch in
the heavens far beyond the solar system, composed of a mass of stars
or condensed gases.]
[Footnote 62: Fetich. The word seems to have been applied by
Portuguese sailors and traders on the west coast of Africa to objects
worshiped by the natives, which were regarded as charms or talismans.
Of course the word here means an object of blind admiration and
devotion.]
[Footnote 63: Cry up, to praise, extol.]
[Footnote 64: Ancient and honorable. Isaiah ix. 15.]
[Footnote 65: Complement. What is needed to complete or fill up some
quantity or thing.]
[Footnote 66: Signet. Seal. Emerson is not always felicitous in his
choice of metaphors.]
[Footnote 67: Macdonald. In Cervantes' "Don Quixote," Sancho Panza,
the squire to the "knight of the metaphysical countenance," tells a
story of a gentleman who had asked a countryman to dine with him. The
farmer was pressed to take his seat at the head of the table, and when
he refused out of politeness to his host, the latter became impatient
and cried: "Sit there, clod-pate, for let me sit wherever I will, that
will still be the upper end, and the place of worship to thee." This
saying is commonly attributed to Rob Roy, but Emerson with his usual
inaccuracy in such matters places it in the mouth of Macdonald,--which
Macdonald is uncertain.]
[Footnote 68: Carolus Linnæus (1707-1778). A great Swedish botanist.
He did much to make botany the orderly science it now is.]
[Footnote 69: Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). The most famous of English
chemists. The most important to mankind of his many discoveries was
the safety-lamp to be used in mines where there is danger of explosion
from fire-damp.]
[Footnote 70: Baron George Cuvier (1769-1832). An illustrious French
philosopher, statesman, and writer who made many discoveries in the
realm of natural history, geology and philosophy.]
[Footnote 71: The moon. The tides are caused by the attraction of the
moon and the sun. The attraction of the moon for the water nearest the
moon is somewhat greater than the attraction of the earth's center.
This causes a slight bulging of the water toward the moon and a
consequent high tide.]
[Footnote 72: Emerson frequently omits the principal verb of his
sentences as here: "In a century _there may exist_ one or two men."]
[Footnote 73: This obscurely constructed sentence means: "For their
acquiescence in a political and social inferiority the poor and low
find some compensation in the immense moral capacity thereby gained."]
[Footnote 74: "They" refers to the hero or poet mentioned some twenty
lines back.]
[Footnote 75: Comprehendeth. Here used in the original sense _to
include_. The perfect man should be so thoroughly developed at every
point that he will possess a share in the nature of every man.]
[Footnote 76: By the Classic age is generally meant the age of Greece
and Rome; and by the Romantic is meant the middle ages.]
[Footnote 77: Introversion. Introspection is the more usual word to
express the analytic self-searching so common in these days.]
[Footnote 78: Second thoughts. Emerson uses the word here in the same
sense as the French _arrière-pensée_, a mental reservation.]
[Footnote 79:
"And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."
_Hamlet_, Act III, Sc. 1.
]
[Footnote 80: Movement. The French Revolution.]
[Footnote 81: Let every common object be credited with the diviner
attributes which will class it among others of the same importance.]
[Footnote 82: Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774). An eminent English poet
and writer. He is best known by the comedy "She Stoops to Conquer,"
the poem "The Deserted Village," and the "Vicar of Wakefield." "Of all
romances in miniature," says Schlegel, the great German critic, "the
'Vicar of Wakefield' is the most exquisite." It is probably the most
popular English work of fiction in Germany.]
[Footnote 83: Robert Burns (1759-1796). A celebrated Scottish poet.
The most striking characteristics of Burns' poetry are simplicity and
intensity, in which he is scarcely, if at all, inferior to any of the
greatest poets that have ever lived.]
[Footnote 84: William Cowper (1731-1800). One of the most popular of
English poets. His poem "The Task" was probably more read in his day
than any poem of equal length in the language. Cowper also made an
excellent translation of Homer.]
[Footnote 85: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). The most
illustrious name in German literature; a great poet, dramatist,
novelist, philosopher, and critic. The Germans regard Goethe with the
same veneration we accord to Shakespeare. The colossal drama "Faust"
is the most splendid product of his genius, though he wrote a large
number of other plays and poems.]
[Footnote 86: William Wordsworth (1770-1850). By many considered the
greatest of modern English poets. His descriptions of the ever-varying
moods of nature are the most exquisite in the language. Matthew Arnold
in his essay on Emerson says: "As Wordsworth's poetry is, in my
judgment, the most important work done in verse in our language during
the present century, so Emerson's 'Essays' are, I think, the most
important work done in prose."]
[Footnote 87: Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). A famous English essayist,
historian, and speculative philosopher. It is scarcely too much to say
that no other author of this century has exerted a greater influence
not merely upon the literature but upon the mind of the English nation
than Carlyle. Emerson was an intimate friend of Carlyle, and during
the greater part of his life maintained a correspondence with the
great Englishman. An interesting description of their meeting will be
found among the "Critical Opinions" at the beginning of the work.]
[Footnote 88: Alexander Pope (1688-1744). The author of the "Essay on
Criticism," "Rape of the Lock," the "Essay on Man," and other famous
poems. Pope possessed little originality or creative imagination, but
he had a vivid sense of the beautiful and an exquisite taste. He owed
much of his popularity to the easy harmony of his verse and the
keenness of his satire.]
[Footnote 89: Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). One of the eminent writers
of the eighteenth century. He wrote "Lives of the Poets," poems, and
probably the most remarkable work of the kind ever produced by a
single person, an English dictionary.]
[Footnote 90: Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). One of the most distinguished
of English historians. His great work is the "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire." Carlyle called Gibbon, "the splendid bridge from the
old world to the new."]
[Footnote 91: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). A great Swedish
theologian, naturalist, and mathematician, and the founder of a
religious sect which has since his death become prominent among the
philosophical schools of Christianity.]
[Footnote 92: Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). A Swiss teacher
and educational reformer of great influence in his time.]
COMPENSATION
[Footnote 93: These lines are printed under the title of
_Compensation_ in Emerson's collected poems. He has also another poem
of eight lines with the same title.]
[Footnote 94: Documents, data, facts.]
[Footnote 95: This doctrine, which a little observation would confute,
is still taught by some.]
[Footnote 96: Doubloons, Spanish and South American gold coins of the
value of about $15.60 each.]
[Footnote 97: Polarity, that quality or condition of a body by virtue
of which it exhibits opposite or contrasted properties in opposite or
contrasted directions.]
[Footnote 98: Systole and diastole, the contraction and dilation of
the heart and arteries.]
[Footnote 99: They are increased and consequently want more.]
[Footnote 100: Intenerate, soften.]
[Footnote 101: White House, the popular name of the presidential
mansion at Washington.]
[Footnote 102: Explain the phrase _eat dust_.]
[Footnote 103: Overlook, oversee, superintend.]
[Footnote 104: Res nolunt, etc. Translated in the previous sentence.]
[Footnote 105: The world ... dew. Explain the thought. What gives the
earth its shape?]
[Footnote 106: The microscope ... little. This statement is not in
accordance with the facts, if we are to understand _perfect_ in the
sense which the next sentence would suggest.]
[Footnote 107: Emerson has been considered a pantheist.]
[Footnote 108: _[Greek: Hoi kyboi]_, etc. The translation follows in
the text. This old proverb is quoted by Sophocles, (Fragm. LXXIV.2) in
the form:
[Greek: Aei gar eu piptousin oi Dios kyboi],
Emerson uses it in _Nature_ in the form "Nature's dice are always
loaded."]
[Footnote 109: Amain, with full force, vigorously.]
[Footnote 110: The proverb is quoted by Horace, Epistles, I, X.24:
"Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret."
A similar thought is expressed by Juvenal, Seneca, Cicero, and
Aristophanes.]
[Footnote 111: Augustine, Confessions, B. I.]
[Footnote 112: Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans, the Zeus of the
Greeks.]
[Footnote 113: Tying up the hands. The expression is used
figuratively, of course.]
[Footnote 114: The supreme power in England is vested in Parliament.]
[Footnote 115: Prometheus stole fire from heaven to benefit the race
of men. In punishment for this Jupiter chained him to a rock and set
an eagle to prey upon his liver. Some unknown and terrible danger
threatened Jupiter, the secret of averting which only Prometheus knew.
For this secret Jupiter offered him his freedom.]
[Footnote 116: Minerva, goddess of wisdom, who sprang full-armed from
the brain of Jupiter. The secret which she held is told in the
following lines.]
[Footnote 117: Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Enamored of Tithonus, she
persuaded Jupiter to grant him immortality, but forgot to ask for him
immortal youth. Read Tennyson's poem on _Tithonus_.]
[Footnote 118: Achilles, the hero of Homer's _Iliad_. His mother
Thetis, to render him invulnerable, plunged him into the waters of the
Styx. The heel by which she held him was not washed by the waters and
remained vulnerable. Here he received a mortal wound.]
[Footnote 119: Siegfried, hero of the Nibelungenlied, the old German
epic poem. Having slain a dragon, he bathed in its blood and became
covered with an invulnerable horny hide, only one small spot between
his shoulders which was covered by a leaf remaining vulnerable. Into
this spot the treacherous Hagen plunged his lance.]
[Footnote 120: Nemesis, a Greek female deity, goddess of retribution,
who visited the righteous anger of the gods upon mortals.]