Book VI
. chap. XI.]
[Footnote 124: Shakespeare, the greatest of English writers, seems to have succeeded entirely or almost entirely in removing the personal element from his writings.]
[Footnote 125: Hellenic, Greek.]
[Footnote 126: Tit for tat, etc. This paragraph is composed of a series of proverbs.]
[Footnote 127: Edmund Burke (1729?-1797), illustrious Irish statesman, orator, and author.]
[Footnote 128: Pawns, the pieces of lowest rank in chess.]
[Footnote 129: What is the meaning of _obscene_ here? Compare the Latin.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 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.)]
[Footnote 132: Read Emerson's essay on _Gifts_.]
[Footnote 133: Worm worms, breed worms.]
[Footnote 134: Compare the old proverb "Murder will out." See Chaucer, _N.P.T._, 232 and 237, and _Pr. T._, 124.]
[Footnote 135:
"Et semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum." HORACE, _EPIST._, I. XVIII. 65.
]
[Footnote 136: Stag in the fable. See _Æsop_, LXVI. 184, _Cerva et Leo_; Phædrus I. 12. _Cervus ad fontem_; La Fontaine, vi. 9, _Le Cerf se Voyant dans l'eau_.]
[Footnote 137: See the quotation from St. Bernard farther on.]
[Footnote 138: Withholden, old participle of _withhold_, now _withheld_.]
[Footnote 139: What is the etymology of the word _mob_?]
[Footnote 140: Optimism and Pessimism. The meanings of these two opposites are readily made out from the Latin words from which they come.]
[Footnote 141: St. Bernard de Clairvaux (1091-1153), French ecclesiastic.]
[Footnote 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."]
[Footnote 143: The first _his_ refers to Jesus, the second to Shakespeare.]
[Footnote 144: Banyan. What is the characteristic of this tree that makes it appropriate for this figure?]
SELF-RELIANCE
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 146: _Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune_.]
[Footnote 147: These lines appear in Emerson's _Quatrains_ under the title _Power_.]
[Footnote 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."]
[Footnote 149: "The man that stands by himself, the universe stands by him also."--EMERSON, _Behavior_.]
[Footnote 150: Plato (429-347 B.C.), (See note 36.)]
[Footnote 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.
]
[Footnote 152: "The great poet makes feel our own wealth."--EMERSON, _The Over-Soul_.]
[Footnote 153: Then most when, most at the time when.]
[Footnote 154: "The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity."--EMERSON, _Address to the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge_.]
[Footnote 155:
"For words, like Nature, half reveal And half conceal the soul within." TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_, V. I.
]
[Footnote 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."
]
[Footnote 157: Chaos ([Greek: Chaos]), 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.]
[Footnote 158: These, _i.e._, children, babes, and brutes.]
[Footnote 159: Four or five. Supply the noun.]
[Footnote 160: Nonchalance, a French word meaning _indifference_, _coolness_.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 162: Eclat, a French word meaning _brilliancy of success_, _striking effect_.]
[Footnote 163: "Lethe, the river of oblivion."--_Paradise Lost_. Oblivion, forgetfulness.]
[Footnote 164: Who. What is the construction?]
[Footnote 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.)]
[Footnote 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.
]
[Footnote 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.
]
[Footnote 168: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." _Hamlet_, II. 2.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 170: He had rather have his actions ascribed to whim and caprice than to spend the day in explaining them.]
[Footnote 171: Diet and bleeding, special diet and medical care, used figuratively, of course.]
[Footnote 172: Read Emerson's essay on _Greatness_.]
[Footnote 173: The precise man, precisely what kind of man.]
[Footnote 174: "By their fruits ye shall know them."--_Matthew_, vii. 16 and 20.]
[Footnote 175: With, notwithstanding, in spite of.]
[Footnote 176: Of the bench, of an impartial judge.]
[Footnote 177: Bound their eyes with ... handkerchief, in this game of blindman's-buff.]
[Footnote 178: "Pin thy faith to no man's sleeve; hast thou not two eyes of thy own?"--CARLYLE.]
[Footnote 179: Give examples of men who have been made to feel the displeasure of the world for their nonconformity.]
[Footnote 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.
]
[Footnote 181: _The other terror._ The first, conformity, has just been treated.]
[Footnote 182: Consistency. Compare, on the other hand, the well-known saying, "Consistency, thou art a jewel."]
[Footnote 183: Orbit, course in life.]
[Footnote 184: Somewhat, something.]
[Footnote 185: See _Genesis_, xxxix. 12.]
[Footnote 186: Pythagoras (fl. about 520 B.C.), a Greek philosopher. His society was scattered and persecuted by the fury of the populace.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 191: Sir Isaac Newton. (See note 53.)]
[Footnote 192: Andes, the great mountain system of South America.]
[Footnote 193: Himmaleh, Himalaya, the great mountain system of Asia.]
[Footnote 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:
[Greek: "Nipson anomêmata mê monan opsin,"]
]
[Footnote 195: The reference is to sailing vessels, of course.]
[Footnote 196: Scorn eyes, scorn observers.]
[Footnote 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."]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 199: Spartan. The ancient Spartans were noted for their courage and fortitude.]
[Footnote 200: Julius Cæsar (100-44 B.C.), the great Roman general, statesman, orator, and author.]
[Footnote 201: St. Anthony (251-356), Egyptian founder of monachism, the system of monastic seclusion.]
[Footnote 202: George Fox (1624-1691), English founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers.]
[Footnote 203: John Wesley (1703-1791), English founder of the religious sect known as Methodists.]
[Footnote 204: Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), English philanthropist and abolitionist.]
[Footnote 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_,