Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

[250]Shakespeare (1564-1616), the great English poet and dramatist. He is mentioned in Emerson's writings more than any other character in history, and is taken as the type of the poet in his Representative Men.

"O mighty poet! Thy works are not as those of other men, simply and merely great works of art; but are also like the phenomena of nature, like the sun and the sea, the stars and the flowers,—like frost and snow, rain and dew, hailstorm and thunder, which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties, and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little, nothing useless or inert,—but that, the further we press in our discoveries, the more we shall see proofs of design and self-supporting arrangement where the careless eye had seen nothing but accident!"—De Quincy.

[251]Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American philosopher, statesman, diplomatist, and author. He discovered the identity of lightning with electricity, invented the lightning-rod, went on several diplomatic missions to Europe, was one of the committee that drew up the Declaration of Independence, signed the treaty of Paris, and compiled Poor Richard's Almanac.

[252]Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a famous English philosopher and statesman. He became Lord Chancellor under Elizabeth. He is best known by his Essays; he wrote also the Novum Organum and the Advancement of Learning.

[253]Sir Isaac Newton. (See note 53.)

[254]Scipio. (See note 205.)

[255]Phidias (500?-432? b.c.), famous Greek sculptor.

[256]Egyptians. He has in mind the pyramids.

[257] The Pentateuch is attributed to Moses.

[258]Dante (1265-1321), the greatest of Italian poets, author of the Divina Commedia.

[259]Foreworld, a former ideal state of the world.

[260]New Zealander, inhabitant of New Zealand, a group of two islands lying southeast of Australia.

[261]Geneva, a city of Switzerland, situated at the southwestern extremity of Lake Geneva.

[262]Greenwich nautical almanac. The meridian of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, near London, is the prime meridian for reckoning the longitude of the world. The nautical almanac is a publication containing astronomical data for the use of navigators and astronomers. What is the name of the corresponding publication of the U.S. Observatory at Washington?

[263] Get the meaning of these astronomical terms.

[264]Plutarch. (50?-120? a.d.), Greek philosopher and biographer, author of Parallel Lives, a series of Greek and Roman biographies. Next after Shakespeare and Plato he is the author most frequently mentioned by Emerson. Read the essay of Emerson on Plutarch.

[265]Phocion (402-317 b.c.), Athenian statesman and general. (See note 364.)

[266]Anaxagoras (500-426 b.c.), Greek philosopher of distinction.

[267] Diogenes (400?-323?), Greek cynic philosopher who affected great contempt for riches and honors and the comforts of civilized life, and is said to have taken up his residence in a tub.

[268]Henry Hudson (—— - 1611), English navigator and explorer, discoverer of the bay and river which bear his name.

[269]Bering or Behring (1680-1741), Danish navigator, discoverer of Behring Strait.

[270]Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855), English navigator and Arctic explorer.

[271]Sir John Franklin (1786-1846?), celebrated English navigator and Arctic explorer, lost in the Arctic seas.

[272]Christopher Columbus (1445?-1506), Genoese navigator and discoverer of America. His ship, the Santa Maria, appears small and insignificant in comparison with the modern ocean ship.

[273]Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of France, one of the greatest military geniuses the world has ever seen. He was defeated in the battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington, and died in exile on the isle of St. Helena. Emerson takes him as a type of the man of the world in his Representative Men: "I call Napoleon the agent or attorney of the middle class of modern society.... He was the agitator, the destroyer of prescription, the internal improver, the liberal, the radical, the inventor of means, the opener of doors and markets, the subverter of monopoly and abuse.... He had the virtues of the masses of his constituents: he had also their vices. I am sorry that the brilliant picture has its reverse."

[274]Comte de las Cases (not Casas) (1766-1842), author of Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène.

[275]Ali, Arabian caliph, surnamed the "Lion of God," cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed. He was assassinated about 661.

[276] The county of Essex in England has several namesakes in America.

[277]Fortune. In Roman mythology Fortune, the goddess of fortune or chance, is represented as standing on a ball or wheel.

"Nec metuis dubio Fortunæ stantis in orbe Numen, et exosæ verba superba deæ?" Ovid,Tristia, v., 8, 8.