Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
shining hours, and almost we expect to see the jasmine and cactus
burst from the ground instead of these last gentians and asters which
have loitered to attend this latter glory of the year? All insects are
out, all birds come forth, the very cattle that lie on the ground seem
to have great thoughts, and Egypt and India look from their eyes."]
[Footnote 471: Halcyons. Halcyon days, ones of peace and tranquillity;
anciently, days of calm weather in mid-winter, when the halcyon, or
kingfisher, was supposed to brood. It was fabled that this bird laid
its eggs in a nest that floated on the sea, and that it charmed the
winds and waves to make them calm while it brooded.]
[Footnote 472: Indian Summer. Calm, dry, hazy weather which comes in
the autumn in America. The Century Dictionary says it was called
Indian Summer because the season was most marked in the sections of
the upper eastern Mississippi valley inhabited by Indians about the
time the term became current.]
[Footnote 473: Gabriel. One of the seven archangels. The Hebrew name
means "God is my strong one."]
[Footnote 474: Uriel. Another of the seven archangels; the name means
"Light of God."]
[Footnote 475: Converts all trees to wind-harps. Compare with this
passage the lines in Emerson's poem, _Woodnotes_:
"And the countless leaves of the pines are strings
Tuned to the lay the wood-god sings."
]
[Footnote 476: The village. Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson's home the
greater part of the time from 1832 till his death.]
[Footnote 477: I go with my friend, etc. With Henry Thoreau, the lover
of Nature.]
[Footnote 478: Our little river. The Concord river.]
[Footnote 479: Novitiate and probation. Explain the meaning of these
words, in the Roman Catholic Church. What does Emerson mean by them
here?]
[Footnote 480: Villegiatura. The Italian name for a season spent in
country pleasures.]
[Footnote 481: Hanging gardens. The hanging gardens of Babylon were
one of the seven wonders of the world.]
[Footnote 482: Versailles. A royal residence near Paris, with
beautiful formal gardens.]
[Footnote 483: Paphos. A beautiful city on the island of Cyprus, where
was situated a temple of Astarte, or Venus.]
[Footnote 484: Ctesiphon. One of the chief cities of ancient Persia,
the site of a magnificent royal palace.]
[Footnote 485: Notch Mountains. Probably the White Mountains near
Crawford Notch, a deep, narrow valley which is often called "The
Notch."]
[Footnote 486: Æolian harp. A stringed instrument from which sound is
drawn by the passing of the wind over its strings. It was named for
Æolus, the god of the winds, in Greek mythology.]
[Footnote 487: Dorian. Dorus was one of the four divisions of Greece:
the word is here used in a general sense for Grecian.]
[Footnote 488: Apollo. In Greek and Roman mythology, the sun god, who
presided over music, poetry, and healing.]
[Footnote 489: Diana. In Roman mythology, the goddess of the moon
devoted to the chase.]
[Footnote 490: Edens. Beautiful, sinless places,--like the garden of
Eden.]
[Footnote 491: Tempes. Places like the lovely valley of Tempe in
Thessaly, Greece.]
[Footnote 492: Como Lake. A lake of northern Italy, celebrated for its
beauty.]
[Footnote 493: Madeira Islands. Where are these islands, famous for
picturesque beauty and balmy atmosphere?]
[Footnote 494: Common. What is a common?]
[Footnote 495: Campagna. The plain near Rome.]
[Footnote 496: Dilettantism. Define this word and explain its use
here.]
[Footnote 497: "Wreaths" and "Flora's Chaplets." About the time that
Emerson was writing his essays, volumes of formal, artificial verses
were very fashionable, more as parlor ornaments than as literature.
Two such volumes were _A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England_ and
_The Floral Offering_ by Mrs. Frances Osgood, a New England writer.]
[Footnote 498: Pan. In Greek mythology, the god of woods, fields,
flocks, and shepherds.]
[Footnote 499: The multitude of false cherubs, etc. Explain the
meaning of this sentence. If true money were valueless, would people
make false money?]
[Footnote 500: Proteus. In Greek mythology, a sea god who had the
power of assuming different shapes. If caught and held fast, however,
he was forced to assume his own shape and answer the questions put to
him.]
[Footnote 501: Mosaic ... Schemes. The conception of the world as
given in Genesis on which the law of Moses, the great Hebrew lawgiver,
was founded.]
[Footnote 502: Ptolemaic schemes. The system of geography and
astronomy taught in the second century by Ptolemy of Alexandria; it
was accepted till the sixteenth century, when the Copernican system
was established. Ptolemy believed that the sun, planets, and stars
revolve around the earth; Copernicus taught that the planets revolve
around the sun.]
[Footnote 503: Flora. In Roman mythology, the goddess of the spring
and of flowers.]
[Footnote 504: Fauna. In Roman mythology, the goddess of fields and
shepherds; she represents the fruitfulness of the earth.]
[Footnote 505: Ceres. The Roman goddess of grain and harvest,
corresponding to the Greek goddess, Demeter.]
[Footnote 506: Pomona. The Roman goddess of fruit trees and gardens.]
[Footnote 507: All duly arrive. Emerson deducts from nature the
doctrine of evolution. What is its teaching?]
[Footnote 508: Plato. (See note 36.)]
[Footnote 509: Himalaya Mountain chains. (See note 193.)]
[Footnote 510: Franklin. Give an account of Benjamin Franklin, the
famous American scientist and patriot. What did he prove about
lightening?]
[Footnote 511: Dalton. John Dalton was an English chemist who, about
the beginning of the nineteenth century, perfected the atomic theory,
that is, the theory that all chemical combinations take place in
certain ways between the atoms, or ultimate particles, of bodies.]
[Footnote 512: Davy. (See note 69.)]
[Footnote 513: Black. Joseph Black, a Scotch chemist who made valuable
discoveries about latent heat and carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid
gas.]
[Footnote 514: The astronomers said, etc. Beginning with this passage,
several pages of this essay was published in 1844, under the title of
_Tantalus_, in the next to the last number of _The Dial_, which
Emerson edited.]
[Footnote 515: Centrifugal, centripetal. Define these words.]
[Footnote 516: Stoics. See "Stoicism," 331.]
[Footnote 517: Luther. (See note 188.)]
[Footnote 518: Jacob Behmen. A German mystic of the sixteenth century;
his name is usually written Boehme.]
[Footnote 519: George Fox. (See note 202.)]
[Footnote 520: James Naylor. An English religious enthusiast of the
seventeenth century; he was first a Puritan and later a Quaker.]
[Footnote 521: Operose. Laborious.]
[Footnote 522: Outskirt and far-off reflection, etc. Compare with this
passage Emerson's poem, _The Forerunners_.]
[Footnote 523: Oedipus. In Greek mythology, the King of Thebes who
solved the riddle of the Sphinx, a fabled monster.]
[Footnote 524: Prunella. A widely scattered plant, called self-heal,
because a decoction of its leaves and stems was, and to some extent
is, valued as an application to wounds. An editor comments on the fact
that during the last years of Emerson's life "the little blue
self-heal crept into the grass before his study window."]
SHAKESPEARE; OR, THE POET
[Footnote 525: Shakespeare; or the Poet is one of seven essays on
great men in various walks of life, published in 1850 under the title
of _Representative Men_. These essays were first delivered as lectures
in Boston in the winter of 1845, and were repeated two years later
before English audiences. They must have been especially interesting
to those Englishmen who had, seven years before, heard Emerson's
friend, Carlyle, deliver his six lectures on great men whom he
selected as representative ones. These lectures were published under
the title of _Heroes and Hero-Worship_. You should read the latter
part of Carlyle's lecture on _The Hero as Poet_ and compare what he
says about Shakespeare with Emerson's words. Both Emerson and Carlyle
reverenced the great English poet as "the master of mankind." Even in
serious New England, the plays of Shakespeare were found upon the
bookshelf beside religious tracts and doctrinal treatises. There the
boy Emerson found them and learned to love them, and the man Emerson
loved them but the more. It was as a record of personal experiences
that he wrote in his journal: "Shakespeare fills us with wonder the
first time we approach him. We go away, and work and think, for years,
and come again,--he astonishes us anew. Then, having drank deeply and
saturated us with his genius, we lose sight of him for another period
of years. By and by we return, and there he stands immeasurable as at
first. We have grown wiser, but only that we should see him wiser than
ever. He resembles a high mountain which the traveler sees in the
morning and thinks he shall quickly near it and pass it and leave it
behind. But he journeys all day till noon, till night. There still is
the dim mountain close by him, having scarce altered its bearings
since the morning light."]
[Footnote 526: Genius. Here instead of speaking as in _Friendship_,
see note 286, of the genius or spirit supposed to preside over each
man's life, Emerson mentions the guardian spirit of human kind.]
[Footnote 527: Shakespeare's youth, etc. It is impossible to
appreciate or enjoy this essay without having some clear general
information about the condition of the English people and English
literature in the glorious Elizabethan age in which Shakespeare lived.
Consult, for this information, some brief history of England and a
comprehensive English literature.]
[Footnote 528: Puritans. Strict Protestants who became so powerful in
England that in the time of the Commonwealth they controlled the
political and religious affairs of the country.]
[Footnote 529: Anglican Church. The Established Church of England; the
Episcopal church.]
[Footnote 530: Punch. The chief character in a puppet show, hence the
puppet show itself.]
[Footnote 531: Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, etc. For an account of these
dramatists consult a text book on English literature. The English
drama seems to have begun in the Middle Ages with what were called
Miracle plays, which were scenes from Bible history; about the same
time were performed the Mystery plays, which dramatized the lives of
saints. These were followed by the Moralities, plays in which were
personified abstract virtues and vices. The first step in the creation
of the regular drama was taken by Heywood, who composed some farcical
plays called Interludes. The people of the sixteenth century were fond
of pageants, shows in which classical personages were introduced, and
Masques, which gradually developed from pageants into dramas
accompanied with music. About the middle of the sixteenth century,
rose the English drama,--comedy, tragedy, and historical plays. The
chief among the group of dramatists who attained fame before
Shakespeare began to write were Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, and Peele. Ben
Jonson and Beaumont and Fletcher rank next to Shakespeare among his
contemporaries, and among the other dramatists of the period were
Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Heywood, Middleton, Ford, and Massinger.]
[Footnote 532: At the time when, etc. Probably about 1585.]
[Footnote 533: Tale of Troy. Drama founded on the Trojan war. The
subject of famous poems by Latin and Greek poets.]
[Footnote 534: Death of Julius Cæsar. An account of the plots which
ended in the assassination of the great Roman general.]
[Footnote 535: Plutarch. See note on _Heroism_(264). Shakespeare, like
the earlier dramatists, drew freely on Plutarch's _Lives_ for
material.]