Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
[Footnote 206: In the story of _Abou Hassan_ or _The Sleeper Awakened_
in the _Arabian Nights_ Abou Hassan 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 shines 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 god of
Scandinavian mythology. Thor, his elder son, was the god 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 passion, 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 God
speak with us, lest we die."--_Exodus_, xx. 19. Compare also the
parallel passage 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.]
[Footnote 236: James Hutton (1726-1797), great Scotch geologist,
author of the _Theory of the Earth_.]
[Footnote 237: Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), English philosopher,
jurist, and legislative reformer.]
[Footnote 238: Fourier (1772-1837), French socialist, founder of the
system of Fourierism.]
[Footnote 239: Calvinism, the doctrines of John Calvin (1509-1564).
French theologian and Protestant reformer. A cardinal doctrine of
Calvinism is predestination.]
[Footnote 240: Quakerism, the doctrines of the Quakers or Friends, a
society founded by George Fox (1624-1691).]
[Footnote 241: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish theosophist,
founder of the New Jerusalem Church. He is taken by Emerson in his
_Representative Men_ as the type of the mystic, and is often mentioned
in his other works.]
[Footnote 242: "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us, or we find it not."--EMERSON, _Art_.]
[Footnote 243: Thebes, a celebrated ruined city of Upper Egypt.]
[Footnote 244: Palmyra, a ruined city of Asia situated in an oasis of
the Syrian desert, supposed to be the Tadmor built by Solomon in the
wilderness (_II. Chr._, viii. 4).]
[Footnote 245:
"Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind....
Still to ourselves in every place consign'd,
Our own felicity we make or find."
GOLDSMITH (and JOHNSON),
_The Traveler_, 423-32.
"He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' center, and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself in his own dungeon."
MILTON, _Comus_, 381-5.
Compare also _Paradise Lost_, I, 255-7.]
[Footnote 246: Vatican, the palace of the pope in Rome, with its
celebrated library, museum, and art gallery.]
[Footnote 247: Doric, the oldest, strongest, and simplest of the three
styles of Grecian architecture.]
[Footnote 248: Gothic, a pointed style of architecture, prevalent in
western Europe in the latter part of the middle ages.]
[Footnote 249: Never imitate. Emerson insists on this doctrine.]
[Footnote 250: Shakespeare (1564-1616), the great English poet and
dramatist. He is mentioned in Emerson's writings more than any other
character in history, and is taken as the type of the poet in his
_Representative Men_.
"O mighty poet! Thy works are not as those of other men, simply and
merely great works of art; but are also like the phenomena of nature,
like the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers,--like frost and
snow, rain and dew, hailstorm and thunder, which are to be studied
with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith
that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless
or inert,--but that, the further we press in our discoveries, the more
we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where
the careless eye had seen nothing but accident!"--DE QUINCY.]
[Footnote 251: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American philosopher,
statesman, diplomatist, and author. He discovered the identity of
lightning with electricity, invented the lightning-rod, went on
several diplomatic missions to Europe, was one of the committee that
drew up the Declaration of Independence, signed the treaty of Paris,
and compiled _Poor Richard's Almanac_.]
[Footnote 252: Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a famous English philosopher
and statesman. He became Lord Chancellor under Elizabeth. He is best
known by his _Essays_; he wrote also the _Novum Organum_ and the
_Advancement of Learning_.]
[Footnote 253: Sir Isaac Newton. (See note 53.)]
[Footnote 254: Scipio. (See note 205.)]
[Footnote 255: Phidias (500?-432? B.C.), famous Greek sculptor.]
[Footnote 256: Egyptians. He has in mind the pyramids.]
[Footnote 257: The Pentateuch is attributed to Moses.]
[Footnote 258: Dante (1265-1321), the greatest of Italian poets,
author of the _Divina Commedia_.]
[Footnote 259: Foreworld, a former ideal state of the world.]
[Footnote 260: New Zealander, inhabitant of New Zealand, a group of
two islands lying southeast of Australia.]
[Footnote 261: Geneva, a city of Switzerland, situated at the
southwestern extremity of Lake Geneva.]
[Footnote 262: Greenwich nautical almanac. The meridian of the Royal
Observatory at Greenwich, near London, is the prime meridian for
reckoning the longitude of the world. The nautical almanac is a
publication containing astronomical data for the use of navigators and
astronomers. What is the name of the corresponding publication of the
U.S. Observatory at Washington?]
[Footnote 263: Get the meaning of these astronomical terms.]
[Footnote 264: Plutarch. (50?-120? A.D.), Greek philosopher and
biographer, author of _Parallel Lives_, a series of Greek and Roman
biographies. Next after Shakespeare and Plato he is the author most
frequently mentioned by Emerson. Read the essay of Emerson on
Plutarch.]
[Footnote 265: Phocion (402-317 B.C.), Athenian statesman and general.
(See note 364.)]
[Footnote 266: Anaxagoras (500-426 B.C.), Greek philosopher of
distinction.]
[Footnote 267: Diogenes (400?-323?), Greek cynic philosopher who
affected great contempt for riches and honors and the comforts of
civilized life, and is said to have taken up his residence in a tub.]
[Footnote 268: Henry Hudson (---- - 1611), English navigator and
explorer, discoverer of the bay and river which bear his name.]
[Footnote 269: Bering or Behring (1680-1741), Danish navigator,
discoverer of Behring Strait.]
[Footnote 270: Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855), English navigator
and Arctic explorer.]
[Footnote 271: Sir John Franklin (1786-1846?), celebrated English
navigator and Arctic explorer, lost in the Arctic seas.]
[Footnote 272: Christopher Columbus (1445?-1506), Genoese navigator
and discoverer of America. His ship, the Santa Maria, appears small
and insignificant in comparison with the modern ocean ship.]
[Footnote 273: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of France, one
of the greatest military geniuses the world has ever seen. He was
defeated in the battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington, and died
in exile on the isle of St. Helena. Emerson takes him as a type of the
man of the world in his _Representative Men_: "I call Napoleon the
agent or attorney of the middle class of modern society.... He was the
agitator, the destroyer of prescription, the internal improver, the
liberal, the radical, the inventor of means, the opener of doors and
markets, the subverter of monopoly and abuse.... He had the virtues of
the masses of his constituents: he had also their vices. I am sorry
that the brilliant picture has its reverse."]
[Footnote 274: Comte de las Cases (not Casas) (1766-1842), author of
_Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène_.]
[Footnote 275: Ali, Arabian caliph, surnamed the "Lion of God," cousin
and son-in-law of Mohammed. He was assassinated about 661.]
[Footnote 276: The county of Essex in England has several namesakes in
America.]
[Footnote 277: Fortune. In Roman mythology Fortune, the goddess of
fortune or chance, is represented as standing on a ball or wheel.
"Nec metuis dubio Fortunæ stantis in orbe
Numen, et exosæ verba superba deæ?"
OVID, _Tristia_, v., 8, 8.
]
FRIENDSHIP
[Footnote 278: Most of Emerson's _Essays_ were first delivered as
lectures, in practically the form in which they afterwards appeared in
print. The form and style, it is true, were always carefully revised
before publication; this Emerson called 'giving his thoughts a Greek
dress.' His essay on _Friendship_, published in the First Series of
_Essays_ in 1841 was not, so far as we know, delivered as a lecture;
parts of it, however, were taken from lectures which Emerson delivered