Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
on _Society_, _The Heart_, and _Private Life_.
In connection with his essay on _Friendship_, the student should read
the two other notable addresses on the same subject, one the speech by
Cicero, the famous Roman orator, and the other the essay by Lord
Bacon, the great English author.]
[Footnote 279: Relume. Is this a common word? Define it.]
[Footnote 280: Pass my gate. The walk opposite Emerson's house on the
'Great Road' to Boston was a favorite winter walk for Concord people.
Along it passed the philosophic Alcott and the imaginative Hawthorne,
as well as famous townsmen, and school children.]
[Footnote 281: My friends have come to me, etc.: Compare with
Emerson's views here expressed the noble passage in his essay on _The
Over-Soul_: "Every friend whom not thy fantastic will but the great
and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And
this because the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a
wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood
rolls uninterruptedly in endless circulation through all men, as the
water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one."]
[Footnote 282: Bard. Poet: originally one who composed and sang to the
music of a harp verses in honor of heroes and heroic deeds.]
[Footnote 283: Hymn, ode, and epic. Define each of these three kinds
of poetry.]
[Footnote 284: Apollo. In classic mythology, the sun god who presided
over music, poetry, and art; he was the guardian and leader of the
Muses.]
[Footnote 285: Muses. In classic mythology, the nine sisters who
presided over music, poetry, art, and science. They were Clio the muse
of history, Euterpe of music, especially the flute, Thalia of comedy,
Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of dancing, Erato of erotic poetry,
mistress of the lyre, Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of
astronomy, Calliope of eloquence and epic poetry.]
[Footnote 286: Genius. According to an old belief, a spirit that
watched over a person to control, guide and aid him.]
[Footnote 287: "Crush the sweet poison," etc. This is a quotation from
_Comus_, a poem by Milton.]
[Footnote 288: Systole and diastole. (See note 98.)]
[Footnote 289: Friendship, like the immortality, etc. See on what a
high plane Emerson places this relation of friendship. In 1840 he
wrote in a letter: "I am a worshiper of friendship, and cannot find
any other good equal to it. As soon as any man pronounces the words
which approve him fit for that great office, I make no haste; he is
holy; let me be holy also; our relations are eternal; why should we
count days and weeks?"]
[Footnote 290: Elysian temple. Temple of bliss. In Greek mythology,
Elysium was the abode of the blessed after death.]
[Footnote 291: An Egyptian skull. Plutarch says that at an Egyptian
feast a skull was displayed, either as a hint to make the most of the
pleasure which can be enjoyed but for a brief space, or as a warning
not to set one's heart upon transitory things.]
[Footnote 292: Conscious of a universal success, etc. Emerson wrote in
his journal: "My entire success, such as it is, is composed wholly of
particular failures."]
[Footnote 293: Extends the old leaf. Compare Emerson's lines:
"When half-gods go
The gods arrive."
]
[Footnote 294: A texture of wine and dreams. What does Emerson mean by
this phrase? Explain the whole sentence.]
[Footnote 295: "The valiant warrior," etc. The quotation is from
Shakespeare's _Sonnet_, XXV.]
[Footnote 296: Naturlangsamkeit. A German word meaning slowness. The
slowness of natural development.]
[Footnote 297: Olympian. One who took part in the great Greek games
held every four years on the plain of Olympia. The racing, wrestling
and other contests of strength and skill were accompanied by
sacrifices to the gods, processions, and banquets. There was a sense
of dignity and almost of worship about the games. The Olympic games
have been recently revived, and athletes from all countries of the
world contest for the prizes--simple garlands of wild olive.]
[Footnote 298: I knew a man who, etc. The allusion is to Jonas Very, a
mystic and poet, who lived at Salem, Massachusetts.]
[Footnote 299: Paradox. Define this word. Explain its application to a
friend.]
[Footnote 300: My author says, etc. The quotation is from _A
Consideration upon Cicero_, by the French author, Montaigne. Montaigne
was one of Emerson's favorite authors from his boyhood: of the essays
he says, "I felt as if I myself, had written this book in some former
life, so sincerely it spoke my thoughts."]
[Footnote 301: Cherub. What is the difference between a cherub and a
seraph?]
[Footnote 302: Curricle. A two-wheeled carriage, especially popular in
the eighteenth century.]
[Footnote 303: This law of one to one. Emerson felt that this same law
applied to nature. He wrote in his journal: "Nature says to man, 'one
to one, my dear.'"]
[Footnote 304: Crimen quos, etc. The Latin saying is translated in
the preceding sentence.]
[Footnote 305: Nonage. We use more commonly the word, "minority."]
[Footnote 306: Janus-faced. The word here means simply two-faced,
without the idea of deceit usually attached to it. In Roman mythology,
Janus, the doorkeeper of heaven was the protector of doors and
gateways and the patron of the beginning and end of undertakings. He
was the god of the rising and setting of the sun, and was represented
with two faces, one looking to the east and the other to the west. His
temple at Rome was kept open in time of war and closed in time of
peace.]
[Footnote 307: Harbinger. A forerunner; originally an officer who rode
in advance of a royal person to secure proper lodgings and
accommodations.]
[Footnote 308: Empyrean. Highest and purest heaven; according to the
ancients, the region of pure light and fire.]
HEROISM
[Footnote 309: Title. Probably this essay is, essentially at least,
the lecture on _Heroism_ delivered in Boston in the winter of 1837, in
the course of lectures on _Human Culture_.]
[Footnote 310: Motto. This saying of Mahomet's was the only motto
prefixed to the essay in the first edition. In later editions, Emerson
prefixed, according to his custom, some original lines;
"Ruby wine is drunk by knaves,
Sugar spends to fatten slaves,
Rose and vine-leaf deck buffoons,
Thunder clouds are Jove's festoons,
Drooping oft in wreaths of dread
Lightning-knotted round his head:
The hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head-winds right for royal sails."
]
[Footnote 311: Elder English dramatists. The dramatists who preceded
Shakespeare. In his essay on _Shakespeare; or, the Poet_, Emerson
enumerates the foremost of these,--"Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, Jonson,
Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Heywood, Middleton, Peele, Ford, Massinger,
Beaumont and Fletcher."]
[Footnote 312: Beaumont and Fletcher. Francis Beaumont and John
Fletcher were two dramatists of the Elizabethan age. They wrote
together and their styles were so similar that critics are unable to
identify the share of each in their numerous plays.]
[Footnote 313: Rodrigo, Pedro, or Valerio. Favorite names for heroes
among the dramatists. Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, known usually by the
title of the Cid, was the national hero of Spain, famous for his
exploits against the Moors. Don Pedro was the Prince of Arragon in
Shakespeare's play, _Much Ado About Nothing_.]
[Footnote 314: Bonduca, Sophocles, the Mad Lover, and Double Marriage.
The first, third and fourth are names of plays by Beaumont and
Fletcher. In the case of the second, Emerson, by a lapse of memory,
gives the name of one of the chief characters instead of the name of
the play--_The Triumph of Honor_ in a piece called _Four Plays in
One_. It is from this play by Beaumont and Fletcher that the passage
in the essay is quoted.]
[Footnote 315: Adriadne's crown. According to Greek mythology, the
crown of Adriadne was, for her beauty and her sufferings, put among
the stars. She was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete; she gave
Theseus the clue by means of which he escaped from the labyrinth and
she was afterwards abandoned by him.]
[Footnote 316: Romulus. The reputed founder of the city of Rome.]
[Footnote 317: Laodamia, Dion. Read these two poems by Wordsworth, the
great English poet, and tell why you think Emerson mentioned them
here.]
[Footnote 318: Scott. Sir Walter Scott, a famous Scotch author.]
[Footnote 319: Lord Evandale, Balfour of Burley. These are characters
in Scott's novel, _Old Mortality_. The passage referred to by Emerson
is in the forty-second chapter.]
[Footnote 320: Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle was a great admirer of heroes,
asserting that history is the biography of great men. One of his most
popular books is _Heroes and Hero-Worship_, on a plan similar to that
of Emerson's _Representative Men_.]
[Footnote 321: Robert Burns. A Scotch lyric poet. Emerson was probably
thinking of the patriotic song, _Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled_.]
[Footnote 322: Harleian Miscellanies. A collection of manuscripts
published in the eighteenth century, and named for Robert Harley, the
English statesman who collected them.]
[Footnote 323: Lutzen. A small town in Prussia. The battle referred to
was fought in 1632 and in it the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus gained
a great victory over vastly superior numbers. Nearly two hundred years
later another battle was fought at Lutzen, in which Napoleon gained a
victory over the allied Russians and Prussians.]
[Footnote 324: Simon Ockley. An English scholar of the seventeenth
century whose chief work was a _History of the Saracens_.]
[Footnote 325: Oxford. One of the two great English universities.]
[Footnote 326: Plutarch. (See note 264.)]
[Footnote 327: Brasidas. This hero, described by Plutarch, was a
Spartan general who lived about four hundred years before Christ.]
[Footnote 328: Dion. A Greek philosopher who ruled the city of
Syracuse in the fourth century before Christ.]
[Footnote 329: Epaminondas. A Greek general and statesman of the
fourth century before Christ.]
[Footnote 330: Scipio. (See note 205.)]
[Footnote 331: Stoicism. The stern and severe philosophy taught by the
Greek philosopher Zeno; he taught that men should always seek virtue
and be indifferent to pleasure and happiness. This belief, carried to
the extreme of severity, exercised a great influence on many noble
Greeks and Romans.]
[Footnote 332: Heroism is an obedience, etc. In one of his poems
Emerson says:
"So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,'
The youth replies, 'I can.'"
]
[Footnote 333: Plotinus. An Egyptian philosopher who taught in Rome
during the third century. It was said that he so exalted the mind that
he was ashamed of his body.]
[Footnote 334: Indeed these humble considerations, etc. The passage,
like many which Emerson quotes, is rendered inexactly. The Prince says
to Poins: "Indeed these humble considerations make me out of love with
my greatness. What a disgrace it is to me to remember thy name! or to
know thy face to-morrow! or to take note how many pairs of silk
stockings thou hast, that is, these and those that were thy
peach-colored ones! or to bear the inventory of thy shirts, as, one
for superfluity and another for use!" Shakespeare's _Henry IV._, Part
II. 2, 2.]
[Footnote 335: Ibn Hankal. Ibn Hankul, an Arabian geographer and
traveler of the tenth century. He wrote an account of his twenty
years' travels in Mohammedan countries; in 1800 this was translated
into English by Sir William Jones under the title of _The Oriental
Geography of Ibn Hankal_. In that volume this anecdote is told in