PRUDENCE

[572]Sir Robert Peel.An English statesman who died in 1850, not long afterRepresentative Menwas published.[573]Webster.Daniel Webster, an American statesman and orator who was living when this essay was written.[574]Locke.John Locke. (See note18.)[575]Rousseau.Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher of the eighteenth century.[576]Homer.(See note550.)[577]Menn.Menn, or Mann, was in Sanscrit one of fourteen legendary beings; the one referred to by Emerson, Mann Vaivasvata was supposed to be the author of the laws of Mann, a collection made about the second century.[578]Saadior Sadi. (See note552.)[579]Milton.Of this great English poet and prose writer of the seventeenth century, Emerson says: "No man can be named whose mind still acts on the cultivated intellect of England and America with an energy comparable to that of Milton. As a poet Shakespeare undoubtedly transcends and far surpasses him in his popularity with foreign nations: but Shakespeare is a voice merely: who and what he was that sang, that sings, we know not."[580]Delphi.Here, source of prophecy. Delphi was a city in Greece, where was the oracle of Apollo, the most famous of the oracles of antiquity.[581]Our English Bible.The version made in the reign of King James I. by forty-seven learned divines is a monument of noble English.[582]Liturgy.An appointed form of worship used in a Christian church,—here, specifically, the service of the Episcopal church. Emerson's mother had been brought up in that church, and though she attended her husband's church, she always loved and read her Episcopal prayer book.[583]Grotius.Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, statesman, theologian, and poet of the seventeenth century.[584]Rabbinical forms.The forms used by the rabbis, Jewish doctors or expounders of the law.[585]Common law.In a general sense, the system of law derived from England, in general use among English-speaking people.[586]Vedas.The sacred books of the Brahmins.[587]Æsop's Fables.Fables ascribed to Æsop, a Greek slave who lived in the sixth century before Christ.[588]Pilpay, or Bidpai. Indian sage to whom were ascribed some fables. From an Arabic translation, these passed into European languages and were used by La Fontaine, the French fabulist.[589]Arabian Nights.The Arabian Nights' Entertainment or A Thousand and One Nightsis a collection of Oriental tales, the plan and name of which are very ancient.[590]Cid.The Romances of the Cid, the story of the Spanish national hero, mentioned in note onHeroism139:5, was written about the thirteenth century by an unknown author; it supplied much of the material for two Spanish chronicles and Spanish and French tragedies written later on the same subject.[591]Iliad.The poem in which the Greek, poet, Homer, describes the siege and fall of Troy. Emerson here expresses the view adopted by many scholars that it was the work, not of one, but of many men.[592]Robin Hood.The ballads about Robin Hood, an English outlaw and popular hero of the twelfth century.[593]Scottish Minstrelsy.The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of original and collected poems, published by Sir Walter Scott in 1802.[594]Shakespeare Society.The Shakespeare Society, founded in 1841, was dissolved in 1853. In 1874 The New Shakespeare Society was founded.[595]Mysteries.See "Kyd, Marlowe, etc."531.[596]Ferrex and Porrex, orGorboduc.The first regular English tragedy, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, printed in 1565.[597]Gammer Gurtor's Needle.One of the first English comedies, written by Bishop Still and printed in 1575.[598]Whether the boy Shakespeare poached, etc. For a fuller account of the facts of Shakespeare's life, of which some traditions and facts are mentioned here, consult some good biography of the poet.[599]Queen Elizabeth.Dining her reign, 1558-1603, the English drama rose and attained its height, and there was produced a prose literature hardly inferior to the poetic.[600]King James.King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England who was Elizabeth's kinsman and successor; he reigned in England from 1603 to 1625.[601]Essexes.Walter Devereux was a brave English gentleman whom Elizabeth made Earl of Essex in 1572. His son Robert, the second Earl of Essex, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth's.[602]Leicester.The Earl of Leicester, famous in Shakespeare's time, was Robert Dudley, an English courtier, politician, and general, the favorite of Queen Elizabeth.[603]Burleighsor Burghleys: William Cecil, baron of Burghley, was an English statesman, who, for forty years, was Elizabeth's chief minister.[604]Buckinghams.George Villiers, the first duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier and politician, a favorite of James I. and Charles I.[605]Tudor dynasty.The English dynasty of sovereigns descended on the male side from Owen Tudor. It began with Henry VII. and ended with Elizabeth.[606]Bacon.Consult English literature and history for an account of the great statesman and author, Francis Bacon, "the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."[607]Ben Jonson, etc. In hisTimber or Discoveries, Ben Jonson, a famous classical dramatist contemporary with Shakespeare, says: "I loved the man and do honor his memory on this side idolatry as much as any. He was indeed honest and of an open and free nature: had an excellent fancy; brave notions and gentle expressions: wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped.... His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so, too. Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter.... But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned."[608]Sir Henry Wotton.An English diplomatist and author of wide culture.[609]The following persons, etc. The persons enumerated were all people of note of the seventeenth century. Sir Philip Sidney, Earl of Essex, Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Milton, Sir Henry Vane, Isaac Walton, Dr. John Donne, Abraham Cowley, Charles Cotton, John Pym, and John Hales were Englishmen, scholars, statesmen, and authors. Theodore Beza was a French theologian; Isaac Casaubon was a French-Swiss scholar; Roberto Berlarmine was an Italian cardinal; Johann Kepler was a German astronomer; Francis Vieta was a French mathematician;Albericus Gentilis was an Italian jurist; Paul Sarpi was an Italian historian; Arminius was a Dutch theologian.[610]Many others whom doubtless, etc. Emerson here enumerates some famous English authors of the same period, not mentioned in the preceeding list.[611]Pericles.See note onHeroism,352.[612]Lessing.Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a German critic and poet of the eighteenth century.[613]Wieland.Christopher Martin Wieland was a German contemporary of Lessing's, who made a prose translation into German of Shakespeare's plays.[614]Schlegel.August Wilhelm von Schlegel, a German critic and poet, who about the first of the nineteenth century translated some of Shakespeare's plays into classical German.[615]Hamlet.The hero of Shakespeare's play of the same name.[616]Coleridge.Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet, author of critical lectures and notes on Shakespeare.[617]Goethe.(See note85.)[618]Blackfriar's Theater.A famous London theater in which nearly all the great dramas of the Elizabethan age were performed.[619]Stratford.Stratford-on-Avon, a little town in Warwickshire, England, where Shakespeare was born and where he spent his last years.[620]Macbeth.One of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, written about 1606.[621]Malone, Warburton, Dyce, and Collier.English scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who edited the works of Shakespeare.[622]Covent Garden, Drury Lane, the Park, and Tremont: The leading London theaters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[623]Betterton, Garrick, Kemble, Kean, and Macready, famous British actors of the Shakespearian parts.[624]The Hamlet of a famed performer, etc. Macready. Emerson said to a friend: "I see you are one of the happy mortals who are capable of being carried away by an actor of Shakespeare. Now, whenever I visit the theater to witness the performance of one of his dramas, I am carried away by the poet."[625]What may this mean, etc.Hamlet, I. 4.[626]Midsummer Night's Dream.One of Shakespeare's plays.[627]The forest of Arden.In which is laid, the scene of Shakespeare's play,As You Like It.[628]The nimble air of Scone Castle.It was of the air of Inverness, not of Scone, that "the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses."—Macbeth,i.6.[629]Portia's villa.See the moonlight scene,Merchant of Venice,v.1.[630]The antres vost, etc. SeeOthello,I.3. "Antres" is an old word, meaning caves, caverns.[631]Cyclopean architecture.In Greek mythology, the Cyclops were a race of giants. The term 'Cyclopean' is applied here to the architecture of Egypt and India, because of the majestic size of the buildings, and the immense size of the stones used, as if it would require giants to perform such works.[632]Phidian sculpture.Phidias was a famous Greek sculptor who lived in the age of Pericles and beautified Athens with his works.[633]Gothic minsters.Churches or cathedrals, built in the Gothic, or pointed, style of architecture which prevailed during the Middle Ages; it owed nothing to the Goths, and this term was originally used in reproach, in the sense of "barbarous."[634]The Italian painting.In Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries pictorial art was carried to a degree of perfection unknown in any other time or country.[635]Ballads of Spain and Scotland.The old ballads of these countries are noted for beauty and spirit.[636]Tripod.Define this word, and explain its appropriateness here.[637]Aubrey.John Aubrey, an English antiquarian of the seventeenth century.[638]Rowe.Nicholas Rowe, an English author of the seventeenth century, who wrote a biography of Shakespeare.[639]Timon.See note onGifts,466.[640]Warwick.An English politician and commander of the fifteenth century, called "the King Maker." He appears in Shakespeare's plays,Henry IV.,V., andVI.[641]Antonio.The Venetian Merchant in Shakespeare's play,The Merchant of Venice.[642]Talma.François Joseph Talma was a French tragic actor, to whom Napoleon showed favor.[643]An omnipresent humanity, etc. See what Carlyle has to say on this subject in hisHero as Poet.[644]Daguerre.Louis Jacques Daguerre, a French painter, one of the inventors of the daguerreotype process, by means of which an image is fixed on a metal plate by the chemical action of light.[645]Euphuism.The word here has rather the force of euphemism, an entirely different word. Euphuism was an affected ornate style of expression, so called fromEuphues, by John Lyly, a sixteenth century master of that style.[646]Epicurus.A Greek philosopher of the third century before Christ. He was the founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy which taught that pleasure should be man's chief aim and that the highest pleasure is freedom.[647]Dante.(See note258.)[648]Master of the revels, etc. Emerson always expressed thankfulness for "the spirit of joy which Shakespeare had shed over the universe." See what Carlyle says inThe Hero as Poet, about Shakespeare's "mirthfulness and love of laughter."[649]Koran.The Sacred book of the Mohammedans.[650]Twelfth Night, etc. The names of three bright, merry, or serene plays by Shakespeare.[651]Egyptian verdict.Emerson used Egyptian probably in the sense of "gipsy." He compares such opinions to the fortunes told by the gipsies.[652]Tasso.An Italian poet of the sixteenth century.[653]Cervantes.A Spanish poet and romancer of the sixteenth century, the author ofDon Quixote.[654]Israelite.Such Hebrew prophets as Isaiah and Jeremiah.[655]German.Such as Luther.[656]Swede.Such as Swedenborg, the mystic philosopher of the eighteenth century of whom Emerson had already written inRepresentative Men.[657]A pilgrim's progress.As described by John Bunyan, the English writer, in his famousPilgrim's Progress.[658]Doleful histories of Adam's fall, etc. The subject ofParadise Lost,the great poem by John Milton.[659]With doomsdays and purgatorial, etc. As described by Dante in hisDivine Commedia, an epic about hell, purgatory, and paradise.PRUDENCE[660]The essay onPrudencewas given as a lecture in the course onHuman Culture, in the winter of 1837-8. It waspublished in the first series ofEssays, which appeared in 1841.[661]Lubricity.The word means literally the state or quality of being slippery; Emerson uses it several times, in its derived sense of "instability."[662]Love and Friendship.The subjects of the two essays precedingPrudence, in the volume of 1841.[663]The world is filled with the proverbs, etc. Compare with this passage Emerson's words inCompensationon "the flights of proverbs, whose teaching is as true and as omnipresent as that of birds and flies."[664]A good wheel or pin.That is, a part of a machine.[665]The law of polarity.Having two opposite poles, the properties of the one of which are the opposite of the other.[666]Summer will have its flies.Emerson discoursed with philosophic calm about the impediments and disagreeableness which beset every path; he also accepted them with serenity when he encountered them in his daily life.[667]The inhabitants of the climates, etc. As a northerner, Emerson naturally felt that the advantage and superiority were with his own section. He expressed in his poemsVoluntariesandMaydayviews similar to those declared here.[668]Peninsular campaign.Emerson here refers to the military operations carried on from 1808 to 1814 in Portugal, Spain, and southern France against the French, by the British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces commanded by Wellington. What was the "Peninsular campaign" in American history?[669]Dr. Johnson is reported to have said, etc. Dr. Samuel Johnson was an eminent English scholar of the eighteenth century. In this, as in many other instances, Emerson quotes from his memory instead of from the book. The words of Dr. Johnson, as reported by his biographer Boswell, are: "Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end."[670]Rifle.A local name in England and New England for an instrument, on the order of a whetstone, used for sharpening scythes; it is made of wood, covered with fine sand or emery.[671]Last grand duke of Weimar.Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach is a grand duchy of Germany. The grand duke referred to was Charles Augustus, who died in 1828. He wasthe friend and patron of the great German authors, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wieland.[672]The Raphael in the Dresden gallery.The Sistine Madonna, the most famous picture of the great Italian artist, Raphael.[673]Call a spade a spade.Plutarch, the Greek historian, said, "These Macedonians ... call a spade a spade."[674]Parts.A favorite eighteenth century term for abilities, talents.[675]We have found out, etc. Emerson always insisted that morals and intellect should be united. He urged that power and insight are lessened by shortcomings in morals.[676]Goethe's Tasso.A play by the German poet Goethe, founded on the belief that the imprisonment of Tasso was due to his aspiration to the hand of Leonora d'Este, sister of the duke of Ferrara. Tasso was a famous Italian poet of the seventeenth century.[677]Richard III.An English king, the last of the Plantagenet line, the hero—or villain—of Shakespeare's historical play, Richard III.[678]Bifold.Give a simpler word that means the same.[679]Cæsar.Why is Cæsar the great Roman ruler, given as a type of greatness?[680]Job.Why is Job, the hero of the Old Testament book of the same name, given as a type of misery?[681]Poor Richard.Poor Richard's Almanac, published (1732-1757) by Benjamin Franklin was a collection of maxims inculcating prudence and thrift. These were given as the sayings of "Poor Richard."[682]State Street.A street in Boston, Massachusetts, noted as a financial center.[683]Stick in a tree between whiles, etc. "Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping."—Scott'sHeart of Midlothian. It is said that these were the words of a dying Scotchman to his son.[684]Minor virtues.Emerson suggests that punctuality and regard for a promise are two of these. Can you name others?[685]The Latin proverb says, etc. This is quoted from Tacitus, the famous Roman historian.[686]If he set out to contend, etc. In contention, Emerson holds, the best men would lose their characteristic virtues,—the fearless apostle Paul, his devotion to truth; the gentle disciple John, his loving charity.[687]Though your views are in straight antagonism, &c. This was Emerson's own method, and by it he won a courteous hearing from those to whom his views were most objectionable.[688]Consuetudes.Give a simpler word that has the same meaning.[689]Begin where we will, etc. Explain what Emerson means by this expression.CIRCLES[690]This essay first appeared in the first series ofEssays, published in 1841. Unlike most of the other essays in the volume, no earlier form of it exists, and it was probably not delivered first as a lecture.Dr. Richard Garnett says in hisLife of Emerson: "The object of this fine essay quaintly entitledCirclesis to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn.... Emerson followed his own counsel; he always keeps a reserve of power. His theory ofCirclesreappears without the least verbal indebtedness to himself in the splendid essay onLove."[691]St. Augustine.A celebrated father of the Latin church, who flourished in the fourth century. His most famous work is hisConfessions, an autobiographical volume of religious meditations.[692]Another dawn risen on mid-noon."Another morn has risen on mid-noon." Milton,Paradise Lost, Book V.

[572]Sir Robert Peel.An English statesman who died in 1850, not long afterRepresentative Menwas published.

[573]Webster.Daniel Webster, an American statesman and orator who was living when this essay was written.

[574]Locke.John Locke. (See note18.)

[575]Rousseau.Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French philosopher of the eighteenth century.

[576]Homer.(See note550.)

[577]Menn.Menn, or Mann, was in Sanscrit one of fourteen legendary beings; the one referred to by Emerson, Mann Vaivasvata was supposed to be the author of the laws of Mann, a collection made about the second century.

[578]Saadior Sadi. (See note552.)

[579]Milton.Of this great English poet and prose writer of the seventeenth century, Emerson says: "No man can be named whose mind still acts on the cultivated intellect of England and America with an energy comparable to that of Milton. As a poet Shakespeare undoubtedly transcends and far surpasses him in his popularity with foreign nations: but Shakespeare is a voice merely: who and what he was that sang, that sings, we know not."

[580]Delphi.Here, source of prophecy. Delphi was a city in Greece, where was the oracle of Apollo, the most famous of the oracles of antiquity.

[581]Our English Bible.The version made in the reign of King James I. by forty-seven learned divines is a monument of noble English.

[582]Liturgy.An appointed form of worship used in a Christian church,—here, specifically, the service of the Episcopal church. Emerson's mother had been brought up in that church, and though she attended her husband's church, she always loved and read her Episcopal prayer book.

[583]Grotius.Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, statesman, theologian, and poet of the seventeenth century.

[584]Rabbinical forms.The forms used by the rabbis, Jewish doctors or expounders of the law.

[585]Common law.In a general sense, the system of law derived from England, in general use among English-speaking people.

[586]Vedas.The sacred books of the Brahmins.

[587]Æsop's Fables.Fables ascribed to Æsop, a Greek slave who lived in the sixth century before Christ.

[588]Pilpay, or Bidpai. Indian sage to whom were ascribed some fables. From an Arabic translation, these passed into European languages and were used by La Fontaine, the French fabulist.

[589]Arabian Nights.The Arabian Nights' Entertainment or A Thousand and One Nightsis a collection of Oriental tales, the plan and name of which are very ancient.

[590]Cid.The Romances of the Cid, the story of the Spanish national hero, mentioned in note onHeroism139:5, was written about the thirteenth century by an unknown author; it supplied much of the material for two Spanish chronicles and Spanish and French tragedies written later on the same subject.

[591]Iliad.The poem in which the Greek, poet, Homer, describes the siege and fall of Troy. Emerson here expresses the view adopted by many scholars that it was the work, not of one, but of many men.

[592]Robin Hood.The ballads about Robin Hood, an English outlaw and popular hero of the twelfth century.

[593]Scottish Minstrelsy.The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of original and collected poems, published by Sir Walter Scott in 1802.

[594]Shakespeare Society.The Shakespeare Society, founded in 1841, was dissolved in 1853. In 1874 The New Shakespeare Society was founded.

[595]Mysteries.See "Kyd, Marlowe, etc."531.

[596]Ferrex and Porrex, orGorboduc.The first regular English tragedy, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, printed in 1565.

[597]Gammer Gurtor's Needle.One of the first English comedies, written by Bishop Still and printed in 1575.

[598]Whether the boy Shakespeare poached, etc. For a fuller account of the facts of Shakespeare's life, of which some traditions and facts are mentioned here, consult some good biography of the poet.

[599]Queen Elizabeth.Dining her reign, 1558-1603, the English drama rose and attained its height, and there was produced a prose literature hardly inferior to the poetic.

[600]King James.King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England who was Elizabeth's kinsman and successor; he reigned in England from 1603 to 1625.

[601]Essexes.Walter Devereux was a brave English gentleman whom Elizabeth made Earl of Essex in 1572. His son Robert, the second Earl of Essex, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth's.

[602]Leicester.The Earl of Leicester, famous in Shakespeare's time, was Robert Dudley, an English courtier, politician, and general, the favorite of Queen Elizabeth.

[603]Burleighsor Burghleys: William Cecil, baron of Burghley, was an English statesman, who, for forty years, was Elizabeth's chief minister.

[604]Buckinghams.George Villiers, the first duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier and politician, a favorite of James I. and Charles I.

[605]Tudor dynasty.The English dynasty of sovereigns descended on the male side from Owen Tudor. It began with Henry VII. and ended with Elizabeth.

[606]Bacon.Consult English literature and history for an account of the great statesman and author, Francis Bacon, "the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind."

[607]Ben Jonson, etc. In hisTimber or Discoveries, Ben Jonson, a famous classical dramatist contemporary with Shakespeare, says: "I loved the man and do honor his memory on this side idolatry as much as any. He was indeed honest and of an open and free nature: had an excellent fancy; brave notions and gentle expressions: wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped.... His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so, too. Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter.... But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned."

[608]Sir Henry Wotton.An English diplomatist and author of wide culture.

[609]The following persons, etc. The persons enumerated were all people of note of the seventeenth century. Sir Philip Sidney, Earl of Essex, Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Milton, Sir Henry Vane, Isaac Walton, Dr. John Donne, Abraham Cowley, Charles Cotton, John Pym, and John Hales were Englishmen, scholars, statesmen, and authors. Theodore Beza was a French theologian; Isaac Casaubon was a French-Swiss scholar; Roberto Berlarmine was an Italian cardinal; Johann Kepler was a German astronomer; Francis Vieta was a French mathematician;Albericus Gentilis was an Italian jurist; Paul Sarpi was an Italian historian; Arminius was a Dutch theologian.

[610]Many others whom doubtless, etc. Emerson here enumerates some famous English authors of the same period, not mentioned in the preceeding list.

[611]Pericles.See note onHeroism,352.

[612]Lessing.Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a German critic and poet of the eighteenth century.

[613]Wieland.Christopher Martin Wieland was a German contemporary of Lessing's, who made a prose translation into German of Shakespeare's plays.

[614]Schlegel.August Wilhelm von Schlegel, a German critic and poet, who about the first of the nineteenth century translated some of Shakespeare's plays into classical German.

[615]Hamlet.The hero of Shakespeare's play of the same name.

[616]Coleridge.Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet, author of critical lectures and notes on Shakespeare.

[617]Goethe.(See note85.)

[618]Blackfriar's Theater.A famous London theater in which nearly all the great dramas of the Elizabethan age were performed.

[619]Stratford.Stratford-on-Avon, a little town in Warwickshire, England, where Shakespeare was born and where he spent his last years.

[620]Macbeth.One of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, written about 1606.

[621]Malone, Warburton, Dyce, and Collier.English scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who edited the works of Shakespeare.

[622]Covent Garden, Drury Lane, the Park, and Tremont: The leading London theaters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

[623]Betterton, Garrick, Kemble, Kean, and Macready, famous British actors of the Shakespearian parts.

[624]The Hamlet of a famed performer, etc. Macready. Emerson said to a friend: "I see you are one of the happy mortals who are capable of being carried away by an actor of Shakespeare. Now, whenever I visit the theater to witness the performance of one of his dramas, I am carried away by the poet."

[625]What may this mean, etc.Hamlet, I. 4.

[626]Midsummer Night's Dream.One of Shakespeare's plays.

[627]The forest of Arden.In which is laid, the scene of Shakespeare's play,As You Like It.

[628]The nimble air of Scone Castle.It was of the air of Inverness, not of Scone, that "the air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses."—Macbeth,i.6.

[629]Portia's villa.See the moonlight scene,Merchant of Venice,v.1.

[630]The antres vost, etc. SeeOthello,I.3. "Antres" is an old word, meaning caves, caverns.

[631]Cyclopean architecture.In Greek mythology, the Cyclops were a race of giants. The term 'Cyclopean' is applied here to the architecture of Egypt and India, because of the majestic size of the buildings, and the immense size of the stones used, as if it would require giants to perform such works.

[632]Phidian sculpture.Phidias was a famous Greek sculptor who lived in the age of Pericles and beautified Athens with his works.

[633]Gothic minsters.Churches or cathedrals, built in the Gothic, or pointed, style of architecture which prevailed during the Middle Ages; it owed nothing to the Goths, and this term was originally used in reproach, in the sense of "barbarous."

[634]The Italian painting.In Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries pictorial art was carried to a degree of perfection unknown in any other time or country.

[635]Ballads of Spain and Scotland.The old ballads of these countries are noted for beauty and spirit.

[636]Tripod.Define this word, and explain its appropriateness here.

[637]Aubrey.John Aubrey, an English antiquarian of the seventeenth century.

[638]Rowe.Nicholas Rowe, an English author of the seventeenth century, who wrote a biography of Shakespeare.

[639]Timon.See note onGifts,466.

[640]Warwick.An English politician and commander of the fifteenth century, called "the King Maker." He appears in Shakespeare's plays,Henry IV.,V., andVI.

[641]Antonio.The Venetian Merchant in Shakespeare's play,The Merchant of Venice.

[642]Talma.François Joseph Talma was a French tragic actor, to whom Napoleon showed favor.

[643]An omnipresent humanity, etc. See what Carlyle has to say on this subject in hisHero as Poet.

[644]Daguerre.Louis Jacques Daguerre, a French painter, one of the inventors of the daguerreotype process, by means of which an image is fixed on a metal plate by the chemical action of light.

[645]Euphuism.The word here has rather the force of euphemism, an entirely different word. Euphuism was an affected ornate style of expression, so called fromEuphues, by John Lyly, a sixteenth century master of that style.

[646]Epicurus.A Greek philosopher of the third century before Christ. He was the founder of the Epicurean school of philosophy which taught that pleasure should be man's chief aim and that the highest pleasure is freedom.

[647]Dante.(See note258.)

[648]Master of the revels, etc. Emerson always expressed thankfulness for "the spirit of joy which Shakespeare had shed over the universe." See what Carlyle says inThe Hero as Poet, about Shakespeare's "mirthfulness and love of laughter."

[649]Koran.The Sacred book of the Mohammedans.

[650]Twelfth Night, etc. The names of three bright, merry, or serene plays by Shakespeare.

[651]Egyptian verdict.Emerson used Egyptian probably in the sense of "gipsy." He compares such opinions to the fortunes told by the gipsies.

[652]Tasso.An Italian poet of the sixteenth century.

[653]Cervantes.A Spanish poet and romancer of the sixteenth century, the author ofDon Quixote.

[654]Israelite.Such Hebrew prophets as Isaiah and Jeremiah.

[655]German.Such as Luther.

[656]Swede.Such as Swedenborg, the mystic philosopher of the eighteenth century of whom Emerson had already written inRepresentative Men.

[657]A pilgrim's progress.As described by John Bunyan, the English writer, in his famousPilgrim's Progress.

[658]Doleful histories of Adam's fall, etc. The subject ofParadise Lost,the great poem by John Milton.

[659]With doomsdays and purgatorial, etc. As described by Dante in hisDivine Commedia, an epic about hell, purgatory, and paradise.

[660]The essay onPrudencewas given as a lecture in the course onHuman Culture, in the winter of 1837-8. It waspublished in the first series ofEssays, which appeared in 1841.

[661]Lubricity.The word means literally the state or quality of being slippery; Emerson uses it several times, in its derived sense of "instability."

[662]Love and Friendship.The subjects of the two essays precedingPrudence, in the volume of 1841.

[663]The world is filled with the proverbs, etc. Compare with this passage Emerson's words inCompensationon "the flights of proverbs, whose teaching is as true and as omnipresent as that of birds and flies."

[664]A good wheel or pin.That is, a part of a machine.

[665]The law of polarity.Having two opposite poles, the properties of the one of which are the opposite of the other.

[666]Summer will have its flies.Emerson discoursed with philosophic calm about the impediments and disagreeableness which beset every path; he also accepted them with serenity when he encountered them in his daily life.

[667]The inhabitants of the climates, etc. As a northerner, Emerson naturally felt that the advantage and superiority were with his own section. He expressed in his poemsVoluntariesandMaydayviews similar to those declared here.

[668]Peninsular campaign.Emerson here refers to the military operations carried on from 1808 to 1814 in Portugal, Spain, and southern France against the French, by the British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces commanded by Wellington. What was the "Peninsular campaign" in American history?

[669]Dr. Johnson is reported to have said, etc. Dr. Samuel Johnson was an eminent English scholar of the eighteenth century. In this, as in many other instances, Emerson quotes from his memory instead of from the book. The words of Dr. Johnson, as reported by his biographer Boswell, are: "Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end."

[670]Rifle.A local name in England and New England for an instrument, on the order of a whetstone, used for sharpening scythes; it is made of wood, covered with fine sand or emery.

[671]Last grand duke of Weimar.Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach is a grand duchy of Germany. The grand duke referred to was Charles Augustus, who died in 1828. He wasthe friend and patron of the great German authors, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wieland.

[672]The Raphael in the Dresden gallery.The Sistine Madonna, the most famous picture of the great Italian artist, Raphael.

[673]Call a spade a spade.Plutarch, the Greek historian, said, "These Macedonians ... call a spade a spade."

[674]Parts.A favorite eighteenth century term for abilities, talents.

[675]We have found out, etc. Emerson always insisted that morals and intellect should be united. He urged that power and insight are lessened by shortcomings in morals.

[676]Goethe's Tasso.A play by the German poet Goethe, founded on the belief that the imprisonment of Tasso was due to his aspiration to the hand of Leonora d'Este, sister of the duke of Ferrara. Tasso was a famous Italian poet of the seventeenth century.

[677]Richard III.An English king, the last of the Plantagenet line, the hero—or villain—of Shakespeare's historical play, Richard III.

[678]Bifold.Give a simpler word that means the same.

[679]Cæsar.Why is Cæsar the great Roman ruler, given as a type of greatness?

[680]Job.Why is Job, the hero of the Old Testament book of the same name, given as a type of misery?

[681]Poor Richard.Poor Richard's Almanac, published (1732-1757) by Benjamin Franklin was a collection of maxims inculcating prudence and thrift. These were given as the sayings of "Poor Richard."

[682]State Street.A street in Boston, Massachusetts, noted as a financial center.

[683]Stick in a tree between whiles, etc. "Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping."—Scott'sHeart of Midlothian. It is said that these were the words of a dying Scotchman to his son.

[684]Minor virtues.Emerson suggests that punctuality and regard for a promise are two of these. Can you name others?

[685]The Latin proverb says, etc. This is quoted from Tacitus, the famous Roman historian.

[686]If he set out to contend, etc. In contention, Emerson holds, the best men would lose their characteristic virtues,—the fearless apostle Paul, his devotion to truth; the gentle disciple John, his loving charity.

[687]Though your views are in straight antagonism, &c. This was Emerson's own method, and by it he won a courteous hearing from those to whom his views were most objectionable.

[688]Consuetudes.Give a simpler word that has the same meaning.

[689]Begin where we will, etc. Explain what Emerson means by this expression.

[690]This essay first appeared in the first series ofEssays, published in 1841. Unlike most of the other essays in the volume, no earlier form of it exists, and it was probably not delivered first as a lecture.Dr. Richard Garnett says in hisLife of Emerson: "The object of this fine essay quaintly entitledCirclesis to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn.... Emerson followed his own counsel; he always keeps a reserve of power. His theory ofCirclesreappears without the least verbal indebtedness to himself in the splendid essay onLove."

Dr. Richard Garnett says in hisLife of Emerson: "The object of this fine essay quaintly entitledCirclesis to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn.... Emerson followed his own counsel; he always keeps a reserve of power. His theory ofCirclesreappears without the least verbal indebtedness to himself in the splendid essay onLove."

[691]St. Augustine.A celebrated father of the Latin church, who flourished in the fourth century. His most famous work is hisConfessions, an autobiographical volume of religious meditations.

[692]Another dawn risen on mid-noon."Another morn has risen on mid-noon." Milton,Paradise Lost, Book V.

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