Emerson's Essays Part 5

[Footnote 54: Unhandselled. Uncultivated, without natural advantages. A handsel is a gift.]

[Footnote 55: Druids. The ancient priesthood of the Britons in Caesar's time. They had immense power among these primitive peoples. They were the judges as well as the priests and decided all questions. It is believed that they made human sacrifices to their G.o.ds in the depths of the primeval forest, but not much is known of their rites.]

[Footnote 56: Berserkers. Berserker was a redoubtable hero in Scandinavian mythology, the grandson of the eight-handed Starkodder and the beautiful Alfhilde. He had twelve sons who inherited the wild-battle frenzy, or berserker rage. The sagas, the great Scandinavian epics, are full of stories of heroes who are seized with this fierce longing for battle, murder, and sudden death. The name means bear-shirt and has been connected with the old were-wolf tradition, the myth that certain people were able to change into man-devouring wolves with a wolfish mad desire to rend and kill.]

[Footnote 57: Alfred, surnamed the Great (848-901), king of the West Saxons in England. When he ascended the throne his country was in a deplorable condition from the repeated inroads of northern invaders. He eventually drove them out and established a secure government. England owes much to the efforts of Alfred. He not only fought his country's battles, but also founded schools, translated Latin books into his native tongue, and did much for the intellectual improvement of his people.]

[Footnote 58: The hoe and the spade. "In spite of Emerson's habit of introducing the names of agricultural objects into his writing ('Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood' is a line from one of his poems), his familiarity therewith is evidently not so great as he 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 pa.s.sed 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 Ura.n.u.s. 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 ma.s.s 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 quant.i.ty 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 Linnaeus (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 ill.u.s.trious 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Cla.s.sic 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 a.n.a.lytic self-searching so common in these days.]

[Footnote 78: Second thoughts. Emerson uses the word here in the same sense as the French arriere-pensee, 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 cla.s.s 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 ill.u.s.trious 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 t.i.tle of Compensation in Emerson's collected poems. He has also another poem of eight lines with the same t.i.tle.]

[Footnote 94: Doc.u.ments, 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 G.o.d 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, G.o.ddess 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, G.o.ddess of the dawn. Enamored of t.i.thonus, she persuaded Jupiter to grant him immortality, but forgot to ask for him immortal youth. Read Tennyson's poem on t.i.thonus.]

[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 h.o.r.n.y 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, G.o.ddess of retribution, who visited the righteous anger of the G.o.ds upon mortals.]

[Footnote 121: The Furies or Eumenides, stern and inexorable ministers of the vengeance of the G.o.ds.]

[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: h.e.l.lenic, Greek.]

[Footnote 126: t.i.t for tat, etc. This paragraph is composed of a series of proverbs.]

[Footnote 127: Edmund Burke (1729?-1797), ill.u.s.trious Irish statesman, orator, and author.]

[Footnote 128: p.a.w.ns, 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 a.s.sessment 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 verb.u.m." HORACE, EPIST., I. XVIII. 65.

[Footnote 136: Stag in the fable. See aesop, LXVI. 184, _Cerva et Leo; Phaedrus 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 t.i.tle 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."]