Essays By Ralph Waldo Emerson Part 15

[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 t.i.tle _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, G.o.d-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 Cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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.]