SELF-RELIANCE
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Emerson, Ralph Waldo and Turpin, Edna Henry Lee
Source notes
[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] See Genesis, xxxix. 12.
[186]Pythagoras (fl. about 520 b.c.), a Greek philosopher. His society was scattered and persecuted by the fury of the populace.
[187]Socrates (470?-399 b.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 the old 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 note 53.)
[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";
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 (100-44 b.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 (235-184 b.c.), the great Roman general who defeated Hannibal and decided the fate of Carthage. The quotation is from Paradise Lost, Book IX., line 610.
[206] In the story of Abou Hassan or The Sleeper Awakened in the Arabian Nights Abou Hassan awakes and finds himself treated in every respect as the Caliph Haroun Al-raschid. Shakespeare has made use of a similar trick in Taming 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 in Locksley Hall:
"I the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."