SELF-RELIANCE
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Emerson, Ralph Waldo and Turpin, Edna Henry Lee
Source notes
[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's Quatrains under the title Power.
[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."
[149] "The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also."—Emerson, Behavior.
[150]Plato (429-347 b.c.), (See note 36.)
[151]Milton (1608-1674), the great English epic poet, author of Paradise 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 reveal And 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. In The American Scholar he says:
"In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended." In the essay on Greatness:
"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 meaning indifference, 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 meaning brilliancy 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 note 182.)
[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 on Greatness.
[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.