SELF-RELIANCE

[103]Overlook, oversee, superintend.[104]Res nolunt, etc. Translated in the previous sentence.[105]The world ... dew.Explain the thought. What gives the earth its shape?[106]The microscope ... little.This statement is not in accordance with the facts, if we are to understandperfectin the sense which the next sentence would suggest.[107]Emerson has been considered a pantheist.[108]Oἱ κύβοι, etc. The translation follows in the text. This old proverb is quoted by Sophocles, (Fragm.lxxiv.2) in the form:Ἀεὶ γὰρ εὖ πίπτουσιν οἱ Διὸς κύβοι,Emerson uses it inNaturein the form "Nature's dice are always loaded."[109]Amain, with full force, vigorously.[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.[111]Augustine, Confessions, B. I.[112]Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans, the Zeus of the Greeks.[113]Tying up the hands.The expression is used figuratively, of course.[114]The supreme power in England is vested in Parliament.[115]Prometheusstole fire from heaven to benefit the race of men. In punishment for this Jupiter chained him to arock 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.[116]Minerva, goddess of wisdom, who sprang full-armed from the brain of Jupiter. The secret which she held is told in the following lines.[117]Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Enamored of Tithonus, she persuaded Jupiter to grant him immortality, but forgot to ask for him immortal youth. Read Tennyson's poem onTithonus.[118]Achilles, the hero of Homer'sIliad. 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.[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 horny 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.[120]Nemesis, a Greek female deity, goddess of retribution, who visited the righteous anger of the gods upon mortals.[121]The Furiesor Eumenides, stern and inexorable ministers of the vengeance of the gods.[122]Ajax and Hector, Greek and Trojan heroes in the Trojan War. See Homer'sIliad. 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.[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.[124]Shakespeare, the greatest of English writers, seems to have succeeded entirely or almost entirely in removing the personal element from his writings.[125]Hellenic, Greek.[126]Tit for tat, etc. This paragraph is composed of a series of proverbs.[127]Edmund Burke(1729?-1797), illustrious Irish statesman, orator, and author.[128]Pawns, the pieces of lowest rank in chess.[129]What is the meaning ofobscenehere? Compare the Latin.[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.[131]Scot and lot,"formerly, a parish assessment laid on subjects according to their ability. Now, a phrase for obligations of every kind regarded collectively." (Webster.)[132]Read Emerson's essay onGifts.[133]Worm worms,breed worms.[134]Compare the old proverb "Murder will out." See Chaucer,N.P.T., 232 and 237, andPr. T., 124.[135]"Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum."Horace,Epist., I. XVIII. 65.[136]Stag in the fable. SeeÆsop,lxvi.184,Cerva et Leo; Phædrus I. 12.Cervus ad fontem; La Fontaine, vi. 9,Le Cerf se Voyant dans l'eau.[137]See the quotation from St. Bernard farther on.[138]Withholden, old participle ofwithhold, nowwithheld.[139]What is the etymology of the wordmob?[140]Optimism and Pessimism.The meanings of these two opposites are readily made out from the Latin words from which they come.[141]St. Bernard de Clairvaux(1091-1153), French ecclesiastic.[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."[143]The firsthisrefers to Jesus, the second to Shakespeare.[144]Banyan. What is the characteristic of this tree that makes it appropriate for this figure?SELF-RELIANCE[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.[146]Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune.[147]These lines appear in Emerson'sQuatrainsunder the titlePower.[148]Genius. See the paragraph on genius in Emerson's lecture onThe 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."[149]"The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also."—Emerson,Behavior.[150]Plato(429-347b.c.), (See note36.)[151]Milton(1608-1674), the great English epic poet, author ofParadise Lost."O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,God-gifted organ-voice of England,Milton, a name to resound for ages."Tennyson.[152]"The great poet makes feel our own wealth."—Emerson,The Over-Soul.[153]Then most when, most at the time when.[154]"The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity."—Emerson,Address to the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge.[155]"For words, like Nature, half revealAnd half conceal the soul within."Tennyson,In Memoriam, V. I.[156]Trust thyself. This is the theme of the present essay, and is a lesson which Emerson is never tired of teaching. InThe American Scholarhe says:"In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended." In the essay onGreatness:"Self-respect is the early form in which greatness appears.... Stick to your own.... Follow the path your genius traces like the galaxy of heaven for you to walk in."Carlyle says:"The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself."[157]Chaos(Χάος), the confused, unorganized condition in which the world was supposed to have existed before it was reduced to harmony and order; hence, utter confusion and disorder.[158]These,i.e., children, babes, and brutes.[159]Four or five. Supply the noun.[160]Nonchalance, a French word meaningindifference,coolness.[161]Pit in the playhouse, formerly, the seats on the floor below the level of the stage. These cheap seats were occupied by a class who did not hesitate to express their opinions of the performances.[162]Eclat, a French word meaningbrilliancy of success,striking effect.[163]"Lethe, the river of oblivion."—Paradise Lost. Oblivion, forgetfulness.[164]Who. What is the construction?[165]Nonconformist, one who does not conform to established usages or opinions. Emerson considers conformity and consistency as the two terrors that scare us from self-trust. (See note182.)[166]Explore if it be goodness, investigate for himself and see if it be really goodness."Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."Paul,I. Thes.v. 21.[167]Suffrage, approval."What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."Shakespeare,II. Henry VI., III. 2.[168]"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." —Hamlet,ii. 2.[169]Barbadoes, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, one of the Lesser Antilles. The negroes, composing by far the larger part of the population, were formerly slaves.[170]He had rather have his actions ascribed to whim and caprice than to spend the day in explaining them.[171]Diet and bleeding, special diet and medical care, used figuratively, of course.[172]Read Emerson's essay onGreatness.[173]The precise man, precisely what kind of man.[174]"By their fruits ye shall know them."—Matthew, vii. 16 and 20.[175]With, notwithstanding, in spite of.[176]Of the bench, of an impartial judge.[177]Bound their eyes with ... handkerchief, in this game of blindman's-buff.[178]"Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve; hast thou not two eyes of thy own?"—Carlyle.[179]Give examples of men who have been made to feel the displeasure of the world for their nonconformity.[180]"Nihil tam incertum nec tam inæstimabile est quam animi multitudinis."—Livy, xxxi. 34."Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus."Claudianus,De IV. Consul. Honorii, 302.[181]The other terror.The first, conformity, has just been treated.[182]Consistency. Compare, on the other hand, the well-known saying, "Consistency, thou art a jewel."[183]Orbit, course in life.[184]Somewhat, something.[185]SeeGenesis, xxxix. 12.[186]Pythagoras(fl. about 520b.c.), a Greek philosopher. His society was scattered and persecuted by the fury of the populace.[187]Socrates(470?-399b.c.), the great Athenian philosopher, whose teachings are the subject of most of Plato's writings, was accused of corrupting the youth, and condemned to drink hemlock.[188]Martin Luther(1483-1546) preached against certain abuses of the Roman Catholic Church and was excommunicated by the Pope. He became the leader of the Protestant Reformation.[189]Copernicus(1473-1543) discovered the error of theold Ptolemaic system of astronomy and showed that the sun is the centre of our planetary system. Fearing the persecution of the church, he hesitated long to publish his discovery, and it was many years after his death before the world accepted his theory.[190]Galileo(1564-1642), the famous Italian astronomer and physicist, discoverer of the satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, was thrown into prison by the Inquisition.[191]Sir Isaac Newton.(See note53.)[192]Andes, the great mountain system of South America.[193]Himmaleh, Himalaya, the great mountain system of Asia.[194]Alexandrian stanza.The Alexandrian line consists of twelve syllables (iambic hexameter). Neither the acrostic nor the Alexandrine has the property assigned to it here. A palindrame reads the same forward as backward, as:"Madam, I'm Adam";"Signa te signa; temere me tangis et angis";or the inscription on the church of St. Sophia, Constantinople:Νίψον ἀνοήματα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν[195]The reference is to sailing vessels, of course.[196]Scorn eyes, scorn observers.[197]Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), this distinguished statesman and orator. He became very popular as a statesman and was known as "The Great Commoner."[198]Adams.The reference is presumably to Samuel Adams (1722-1803), a popular leader and orator in the cause of American freedom. He was a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Emerson may have in mind, however, John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States.[199]Spartan.The ancient Spartans were noted for their courage and fortitude.[200]Julius Cæsar(100-44b.c.), the great Roman general, statesman, orator, and author.[201]St. Anthony(251-356), Egyptian founder of monachism, the system of monastic seclusion.[202]George Fox(1624-1691), English founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers.[203]John Wesley(1703-1791), English founder of the religious sect known as Methodists.[204]Thomas Clarkson(1760-1846), English philanthropist and abolitionist.[205]Scipio(235-184b.c.), the great Roman general who defeated Hannibal and decided the fate of Carthage. The quotation is fromParadise Lost, Book IX., line 610.[206]In the story ofAbou HassanorThe Sleeper Awakenedin theArabian NightsAbou Hassan awakes and finds himself treated in every respect as the Caliph Haroun Al-raschid. Shakespeare has made use of a similar trick inTaming of the Shrew, where Christopher Sly is put to bed drunk in the lord's room and on awaking is treated as a lord.[207]Alfred the Great(849-901), King of the West Saxons. He was a wise king, a great scholar, and a patron of learning.[208]Scanderbeg, George Castriota (1404-1467), an Albanian chief who embraced Christianity and carried on a successful war against the Turks.[209]Gustavus Adolphus(1594-1632), King of Sweden, the hero of Protestantism in the Thirty Years' War.[210]Hieroglyphic, a character in the picture-writing of the ancient Egyptian priests; hence, hidden sign.[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.[212]The child has the advantage of the experience of all his ancestors. Compare Tennyson's line inLocksley Hall:"I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."[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.[214]Explain the thought in this sentence.[215]Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.[216]Agent, active, acting.[217]An allusion to the Mohammedan custom of removing the shoes before entering a mosque.[218]Of a truth, men are mystically united; a mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one.[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.[220]Explain the meaning of this sentence.[221]You, or you, addressing different persons.[222]"The truth shall make you free."—John, viii. 32.[223]Antinomianism, the doctrine that the moral law is not binding under the gospel dispensation, faith alone being necessary to salvation.[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.[225]Explain the use ofitin these expressions.[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.[227]Word made flesh, seeJohn, i. 14.[228]Healing to the nations, seeRevelation, xxii. 2.[229]In what prayers do men allow themselvesto indulge?[230]"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,Uttered or unexpressed,The motion of a hidden fireThat trembles in the breast."Montgomery,What is Prayer?

[103]Overlook, oversee, superintend.

[104]Res nolunt, etc. Translated in the previous sentence.

[105]The world ... dew.Explain the thought. What gives the earth its shape?

[106]The microscope ... little.This statement is not in accordance with the facts, if we are to understandperfectin the sense which the next sentence would suggest.

[107]Emerson has been considered a pantheist.

[108]Oἱ κύβοι, etc. The translation follows in the text. This old proverb is quoted by Sophocles, (Fragm.lxxiv.2) in the form:Ἀεὶ γὰρ εὖ πίπτουσιν οἱ Διὸς κύβοι,Emerson uses it inNaturein the form "Nature's dice are always loaded."

[108]Oἱ κύβοι, etc. The translation follows in the text. This old proverb is quoted by Sophocles, (Fragm.lxxiv.2) in the form:

Ἀεὶ γὰρ εὖ πίπτουσιν οἱ Διὸς κύβοι,

Emerson uses it inNaturein the form "Nature's dice are always loaded."

[109]Amain, with full force, vigorously.

[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.

[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.

[111]Augustine, Confessions, B. I.

[112]Jupiter, the supreme god of the Romans, the Zeus of the Greeks.

[113]Tying up the hands.The expression is used figuratively, of course.

[114]The supreme power in England is vested in Parliament.

[115]Prometheusstole fire from heaven to benefit the race of men. In punishment for this Jupiter chained him to arock 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.

[116]Minerva, goddess of wisdom, who sprang full-armed from the brain of Jupiter. The secret which she held is told in the following lines.

[117]Aurora, goddess of the dawn. Enamored of Tithonus, she persuaded Jupiter to grant him immortality, but forgot to ask for him immortal youth. Read Tennyson's poem onTithonus.

[118]Achilles, the hero of Homer'sIliad. 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.

[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 horny 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.

[120]Nemesis, a Greek female deity, goddess of retribution, who visited the righteous anger of the gods upon mortals.

[121]The Furiesor Eumenides, stern and inexorable ministers of the vengeance of the gods.

[122]Ajax and Hector, Greek and Trojan heroes in the Trojan War. See Homer'sIliad. 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.

[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.

[124]Shakespeare, the greatest of English writers, seems to have succeeded entirely or almost entirely in removing the personal element from his writings.

[125]Hellenic, Greek.

[126]Tit for tat, etc. This paragraph is composed of a series of proverbs.

[127]Edmund Burke(1729?-1797), illustrious Irish statesman, orator, and author.

[128]Pawns, the pieces of lowest rank in chess.

[129]What is the meaning ofobscenehere? Compare the Latin.

[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.

[131]Scot and lot,"formerly, a parish assessment laid on subjects according to their ability. Now, a phrase for obligations of every kind regarded collectively." (Webster.)

[132]Read Emerson's essay onGifts.

[133]Worm worms,breed worms.

[134]Compare the old proverb "Murder will out." See Chaucer,N.P.T., 232 and 237, andPr. T., 124.

[135]"Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum."Horace,Epist., I. XVIII. 65.

[135]

"Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum."Horace,Epist., I. XVIII. 65.

[136]Stag in the fable. SeeÆsop,lxvi.184,Cerva et Leo; Phædrus I. 12.Cervus ad fontem; La Fontaine, vi. 9,Le Cerf se Voyant dans l'eau.

[137]See the quotation from St. Bernard farther on.

[138]Withholden, old participle ofwithhold, nowwithheld.

[139]What is the etymology of the wordmob?

[140]Optimism and Pessimism.The meanings of these two opposites are readily made out from the Latin words from which they come.

[141]St. Bernard de Clairvaux(1091-1153), French ecclesiastic.

[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."

[143]The firsthisrefers to Jesus, the second to Shakespeare.

[144]Banyan. What is the characteristic of this tree that makes it appropriate for this figure?

[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.

[146]Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune.

[147]These lines appear in Emerson'sQuatrainsunder the titlePower.

[148]Genius. See the paragraph on genius in Emerson's lecture onThe 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."

[149]"The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also."—Emerson,Behavior.

[150]Plato(429-347b.c.), (See note36.)

[151]Milton(1608-1674), the great English epic poet, author ofParadise Lost."O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,God-gifted organ-voice of England,Milton, a name to resound for ages."Tennyson.

[151]Milton(1608-1674), the great English epic poet, author ofParadise Lost.

"O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,O skill'd to sing of Time or Eternity,God-gifted organ-voice of England,Milton, a name to resound for ages."Tennyson.

[152]"The great poet makes feel our own wealth."—Emerson,The Over-Soul.

[153]Then most when, most at the time when.

[154]"The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity."—Emerson,Address to the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge.

[155]"For words, like Nature, half revealAnd half conceal the soul within."Tennyson,In Memoriam, V. I.

[155]

"For words, like Nature, half revealAnd half conceal the soul within."Tennyson,In Memoriam, V. I.

[156]Trust thyself. This is the theme of the present essay, and is a lesson which Emerson is never tired of teaching. InThe American Scholarhe says:"In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended." In the essay onGreatness:"Self-respect is the early form in which greatness appears.... Stick to your own.... Follow the path your genius traces like the galaxy of heaven for you to walk in."Carlyle says:"The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself."

[156]Trust thyself. This is the theme of the present essay, and is a lesson which Emerson is never tired of teaching. InThe American Scholarhe says:

"In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended." In the essay onGreatness:

"Self-respect is the early form in which greatness appears.... Stick to your own.... Follow the path your genius traces like the galaxy of heaven for you to walk in."

Carlyle says:

"The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself."

[157]Chaos(Χάος), the confused, unorganized condition in which the world was supposed to have existed before it was reduced to harmony and order; hence, utter confusion and disorder.

[158]These,i.e., children, babes, and brutes.

[159]Four or five. Supply the noun.

[160]Nonchalance, a French word meaningindifference,coolness.

[161]Pit in the playhouse, formerly, the seats on the floor below the level of the stage. These cheap seats were occupied by a class who did not hesitate to express their opinions of the performances.

[162]Eclat, a French word meaningbrilliancy of success,striking effect.

[163]"Lethe, the river of oblivion."—Paradise Lost. Oblivion, forgetfulness.

[164]Who. What is the construction?

[165]Nonconformist, one who does not conform to established usages or opinions. Emerson considers conformity and consistency as the two terrors that scare us from self-trust. (See note182.)

[166]Explore if it be goodness, investigate for himself and see if it be really goodness."Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."Paul,I. Thes.v. 21.

[166]Explore if it be goodness, investigate for himself and see if it be really goodness.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."Paul,I. Thes.v. 21.

[167]Suffrage, approval."What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."Shakespeare,II. Henry VI., III. 2.

[167]Suffrage, approval.

"What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just;And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."Shakespeare,II. Henry VI., III. 2.

[168]"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." —Hamlet,ii. 2.

[169]Barbadoes, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, one of the Lesser Antilles. The negroes, composing by far the larger part of the population, were formerly slaves.

[170]He had rather have his actions ascribed to whim and caprice than to spend the day in explaining them.

[171]Diet and bleeding, special diet and medical care, used figuratively, of course.

[172]Read Emerson's essay onGreatness.

[173]The precise man, precisely what kind of man.

[174]"By their fruits ye shall know them."—Matthew, vii. 16 and 20.

[175]With, notwithstanding, in spite of.

[176]Of the bench, of an impartial judge.

[177]Bound their eyes with ... handkerchief, in this game of blindman's-buff.

[178]"Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve; hast thou not two eyes of thy own?"—Carlyle.

[179]Give examples of men who have been made to feel the displeasure of the world for their nonconformity.

[180]"Nihil tam incertum nec tam inæstimabile est quam animi multitudinis."—Livy, xxxi. 34."Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus."Claudianus,De IV. Consul. Honorii, 302.

[180]"Nihil tam incertum nec tam inæstimabile est quam animi multitudinis."—Livy, xxxi. 34.

"Mobile mutatur semper cum principe vulgus."Claudianus,De IV. Consul. Honorii, 302.

[181]The other terror.The first, conformity, has just been treated.

[182]Consistency. Compare, on the other hand, the well-known saying, "Consistency, thou art a jewel."

[183]Orbit, course in life.

[184]Somewhat, something.

[185]SeeGenesis, xxxix. 12.

[186]Pythagoras(fl. about 520b.c.), a Greek philosopher. His society was scattered and persecuted by the fury of the populace.

[187]Socrates(470?-399b.c.), the great Athenian philosopher, whose teachings are the subject of most of Plato's writings, was accused of corrupting the youth, and condemned to drink hemlock.

[188]Martin Luther(1483-1546) preached against certain abuses of the Roman Catholic Church and was excommunicated by the Pope. He became the leader of the Protestant Reformation.

[189]Copernicus(1473-1543) discovered the error of theold Ptolemaic system of astronomy and showed that the sun is the centre of our planetary system. Fearing the persecution of the church, he hesitated long to publish his discovery, and it was many years after his death before the world accepted his theory.

[190]Galileo(1564-1642), the famous Italian astronomer and physicist, discoverer of the satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn, was thrown into prison by the Inquisition.

[191]Sir Isaac Newton.(See note53.)

[192]Andes, the great mountain system of South America.

[193]Himmaleh, Himalaya, the great mountain system of Asia.

[194]Alexandrian stanza.The Alexandrian line consists of twelve syllables (iambic hexameter). Neither the acrostic nor the Alexandrine has the property assigned to it here. A palindrame reads the same forward as backward, as:"Madam, I'm Adam";"Signa te signa; temere me tangis et angis";or the inscription on the church of St. Sophia, Constantinople:Νίψον ἀνοήματα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν

"Madam, I'm Adam";"Signa te signa; temere me tangis et angis";

Νίψον ἀνοήματα μὴ μόναν ὄψιν

[195]The reference is to sailing vessels, of course.

[196]Scorn eyes, scorn observers.

[197]Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), this distinguished statesman and orator. He became very popular as a statesman and was known as "The Great Commoner."

[198]Adams.The reference is presumably to Samuel Adams (1722-1803), a popular leader and orator in the cause of American freedom. He was a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Emerson may have in mind, however, John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States.

[199]Spartan.The ancient Spartans were noted for their courage and fortitude.

[200]Julius Cæsar(100-44b.c.), the great Roman general, statesman, orator, and author.

[201]St. Anthony(251-356), Egyptian founder of monachism, the system of monastic seclusion.

[202]George Fox(1624-1691), English founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers.

[203]John Wesley(1703-1791), English founder of the religious sect known as Methodists.

[204]Thomas Clarkson(1760-1846), English philanthropist and abolitionist.

[205]Scipio(235-184b.c.), the great Roman general who defeated Hannibal and decided the fate of Carthage. The quotation is fromParadise Lost, Book IX., line 610.

[206]In the story ofAbou HassanorThe Sleeper Awakenedin theArabian NightsAbou Hassan awakes and finds himself treated in every respect as the Caliph Haroun Al-raschid. Shakespeare has made use of a similar trick inTaming of the Shrew, where Christopher Sly is put to bed drunk in the lord's room and on awaking is treated as a lord.

[207]Alfred the Great(849-901), King of the West Saxons. He was a wise king, a great scholar, and a patron of learning.

[208]Scanderbeg, George Castriota (1404-1467), an Albanian chief who embraced Christianity and carried on a successful war against the Turks.

[209]Gustavus Adolphus(1594-1632), King of Sweden, the hero of Protestantism in the Thirty Years' War.

[210]Hieroglyphic, a character in the picture-writing of the ancient Egyptian priests; hence, hidden sign.

[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.

[212]The child has the advantage of the experience of all his ancestors. Compare Tennyson's line inLocksley Hall:"I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."

[212]The child has the advantage of the experience of all his ancestors. Compare Tennyson's line inLocksley Hall:

"I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."

[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.

[214]Explain the thought in this sentence.

[215]Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.

[216]Agent, active, acting.

[217]An allusion to the Mohammedan custom of removing the shoes before entering a mosque.

[218]Of a truth, men are mystically united; a mystic bond of brotherhood makes all men one.

[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.

[220]Explain the meaning of this sentence.

[221]You, or you, addressing different persons.

[222]"The truth shall make you free."—John, viii. 32.

[223]Antinomianism, the doctrine that the moral law is not binding under the gospel dispensation, faith alone being necessary to salvation.

[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.

[225]Explain the use ofitin these expressions.

[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.

[227]Word made flesh, seeJohn, i. 14.

[228]Healing to the nations, seeRevelation, xxii. 2.

[229]In what prayers do men allow themselvesto indulge?

[230]"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,Uttered or unexpressed,The motion of a hidden fireThat trembles in the breast."Montgomery,What is Prayer?

[230]

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,Uttered or unexpressed,The motion of a hidden fireThat trembles in the breast."Montgomery,What is Prayer?

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