Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
[Footnote 121: The Furies or Eumenides, stern and inexorable ministers
of the vengeance of the gods.]
[Footnote 122: Ajax and Hector, Greek and Trojan heroes in the Trojan
War. See Homer's _Iliad_. Achilles slew Hector and, lashing him to his
chariot with the belt which Ajax had given Hector, dragged him round
the walls of Troy. Ajax committed suicide with the sword which Hector
had presented to him.]
[Footnote 123: Thasians, inhabitants of the island of Thasus. The
story here told of the rival of the athlete Theagenes is found in
Pausanias' _Description of Greece_, Book VI. chap. XI.]
[Footnote 124: Shakespeare, the greatest of English writers, seems to
have succeeded entirely or almost entirely in removing the personal
element from his writings.]
[Footnote 125: Hellenic, Greek.]
[Footnote 126: Tit for tat, etc. This paragraph is composed of a
series of proverbs.]
[Footnote 127: Edmund Burke (1729?-1797), illustrious Irish statesman,
orator, and author.]
[Footnote 128: Pawns, the pieces of lowest rank in chess.]
[Footnote 129: What is the meaning of _obscene_ here? Compare the
Latin.]
[Footnote 130: Polycrates, a tyrant of Samos, who was visited with
such remarkable prosperity that he was advised by a friend to break
the course of it by depriving himself of some valued possession. In
accordance with this advice he cast into the sea an emerald ring which
he considered his rarest treasure. A few days later a fisherman
presented the monarch with a large fish inside of which the ring was
found. Soon after this Polycrates fell into the power of an enemy and
was nailed to a cross.]
[Footnote 131: Scot and lot, "formerly, a parish assessment laid on
subjects according to their ability. Now, a phrase for obligations of
every kind regarded collectively." (Webster.)]
[Footnote 132: Read Emerson's essay on _Gifts_.]
[Footnote 133: Worm worms, breed worms.]
[Footnote 134: Compare the old proverb "Murder will out." See Chaucer,
_N.P.T._, 232 and 237, and _Pr. T._, 124.]
[Footnote 135:
"Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum."
HORACE, _EPIST._, I. XVIII. 65.
]
[Footnote 136: Stag in the fable. See _Æsop_, LXVI. 184, _Cerva et
Leo_; Phædrus I. 12. _Cervus ad fontem_; La Fontaine, vi. 9, _Le Cerf
se Voyant dans l'eau_.]
[Footnote 137: See the quotation from St. Bernard farther on.]
[Footnote 138: Withholden, old participle of _withhold_, now
_withheld_.]
[Footnote 139: What is the etymology of the word _mob_?]
[Footnote 140: Optimism and Pessimism. The meanings of these two
opposites are readily made out from the Latin words from which they
come.]
[Footnote 141: St. Bernard de Clairvaux (1091-1153), French
ecclesiastic.]
[Footnote 142: Jesus. Holmes writes of Emerson: "Jesus was for him a
divine manifestation, but only as other great human souls have been in
all ages and are to-day. He was willing to be called a Christian just
as he was willing to be called a Platonist.... If he did not worship
the 'man Christ Jesus' as the churches of Christendom have done, he
followed his footsteps so nearly that our good Methodist, Father
Taylor, spoke of him as more like Christ than any man he had known."]
[Footnote 143: The first _his_ refers to Jesus, the second to
Shakespeare.]
[Footnote 144: Banyan. What is the characteristic of this tree that
makes it appropriate for this figure?]
SELF-RELIANCE
[Footnote 145: Ne te, etc. "Do not seek for anything outside of
thyself." From Persius, _Sat._ I. 7. Compare Macrobius, _Com. in Somn.
Scip._, I. ix. 3, and Boethius, _De Consol. Phil._, IV. 4.]
[Footnote 146: _Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's
Fortune_.]
[Footnote 147: These lines appear in Emerson's _Quatrains_ under the
title _Power_.]
[Footnote 148: Genius. See the paragraph on genius in Emerson's
lecture on _The Method of Nature_, one sentence of which runs: "Genius
is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture
from within, going abroad only for audience, and spectator."]
[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,
God-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 Class 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
class 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 inæstimabile est quam animi
multitudinis."--LIVY, xxxi. 34.
"Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus."
CLAUDIANUS, _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_, xxxix. 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 assigned 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 anomêmata mê 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 fortitude.]
[Footnote 200: Julius Cæsar (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.]