Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

[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 of it in 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, see John, i. 14.

[228]Healing to the nations, see Revelation, xxii. 2.

[229]In what prayers do men allow themselves to indulge?

[230]

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

[231]Caratach (Caractacus) is a historical character in Fletcher's (1576-1625) tragedy of Bonduca (Boadicea).

[232]Zoroaster, a Persian philosopher, founder of the ancient Persian religion. He flourished long before the Christian era.

[233] "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."—Exodus, xx. 19. Compare also the parallel passage in Deuteronomy, v. 25-27.

[234]John Locke. (See note 18.)

[235]Lavoisier (1743-1794), celebrated French chemical philosopher, discoverer of the composition of water.

[236]James Hutton (1726-1797), great Scotch geologist, author of the Theory of the Earth.

[237]Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), English philosopher, jurist, and legislative reformer.

[238]Fourier (1772-1837), French socialist, founder of the system of Fourierism.

[239]Calvinism, the doctrines of John Calvin (1509-1564). French theologian and Protestant reformer. A cardinal doctrine of Calvinism is predestination.

[240]Quakerism, the doctrines of the Quakers or Friends, a society founded by George Fox (1624-1691).

[241]Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish theosophist, founder of the New Jerusalem Church. He is taken by Emerson in his Representative Men as the type of the mystic, and is often mentioned in his other works.

[242] "Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not."—Emerson, Art.

[243]Thebes, a celebrated ruined city of Upper Egypt.

[244]Palmyra, a ruined city of Asia situated in an oasis of the Syrian desert, supposed to be the Tadmor built by Solomon in the wilderness (II. Chr., viii. 4).

[245]

"Vain, very vain, my weary search to find That bliss which only centers in the mind.... Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, Our own felicity we make or find." Goldsmith (and Johnson), The Traveler, 423-32.

"He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i' th' center, and enjoy bright day; But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself in his own dungeon." Milton,Comus, 381-5.

[246]Vatican, the palace of the pope in Rome, with its celebrated library, museum, and art gallery.

[247]Doric, the oldest, strongest, and simplest of the three styles of Grecian architecture.

[248]Gothic, a pointed style of architecture, prevalent in western Europe in the latter part of the middle ages.

[249]Never imitate. Emerson insists on this doctrine.

Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

SELF-RELIANCE

Source notes