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The American Scholar
by
[Footnote 61: Nebulous. In astronomy a nebula is a luminous patch in the heavens far beyond the solar system, composed of a mass of stars or condensed gases.]
[Footnote 62: Fetich. The word seems to have been applied by Portuguese sailors and traders on the west coast of Africa to objects worshiped by the natives, which were regarded as charms or talismans. Of course the word here means an object of blind admiration and devotion.]
[Footnote 63: Cry up, to praise, extol.]
[Footnote 64: Ancient and honorable. Isaiah ix. 15.]
[Footnote 65: Complement. What is needed to complete or fill up some quantity or thing.]
[Footnote 66: Signet. Seal. Emerson is not always felicitous in his choice of metaphors.]
[Footnote 67: Macdonald. In Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” Sancho Panza, the squire to the “knight of the metaphysical countenance,” tells a story of a gentleman who had asked a countryman to dine with him. The farmer was pressed to take his seat at the head of the table, and when he refused out of politeness to his host, the latter became impatient and cried: “Sit there, clod-pate, for let me sit wherever I will, that will still be the upper end, and the place of worship to thee.” This saying is commonly attributed to Rob Roy, but Emerson with his usual inaccuracy in such matters places it in the mouth of Macdonald,–which Macdonald is uncertain.]
[Footnote 68: Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778). A great Swedish botanist. He did much to make botany the orderly science it now is.]
[Footnote 69: Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829). The most famous of English chemists. The most important to mankind of his many discoveries was the safety-lamp to be used in mines where there is danger of explosion from fire-damp.]
[Footnote 70: Baron George Cuvier (1769-1832). An illustrious French philosopher, statesman, and writer who made many discoveries in the realm of natural history, geology and philosophy.]
[Footnote 71: The moon. The tides are caused by the attraction of the moon and the sun. The attraction of the moon for the water nearest the moon is somewhat greater than the attraction of the earth’s center. This causes a slight bulging of the water toward the moon and a consequent high tide.]
[Footnote 72: Emerson frequently omits the principal verb of his sentences as here: “In a century there may exist one or two men.”]
[Footnote 73: This obscurely constructed sentence means: “For their acquiescence in a political and social inferiority the poor and low find some compensation in the immense moral capacity thereby gained.”]
[Footnote 74: “They” refers to the hero or poet mentioned some twenty lines back.]
[Footnote 75: Comprehendeth. Here used in the original sense to include. The perfect man should be so thoroughly developed at every point that he will possess a share in the nature of every man.]
[Footnote 76: By the Classic age is generally meant the age of Greece and Rome; and by the Romantic is meant the middle ages.]
[Footnote 77: Introversion. Introspection is the more usual word to express the analytic self-searching so common in these days.]
[Footnote 78: Second thoughts. Emerson uses the word here in the same sense as the French arriere-pensee, a mental reservation.]
[Footnote 79:
“And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”
Hamlet, Act III, Sc. 1. ]
[Footnote 80: Movement. The French Revolution.]
[Footnote 81: Let every common object be credited with the diviner attributes which will class it among others of the same importance.]
[Footnote 82: Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774). An eminent English poet and writer. He is best known by the comedy “She Stoops to Conquer,” the poem “The Deserted Village,” and the “Vicar of Wakefield.” “Of all romances in miniature,” says Schlegel, the great German critic, “the ‘Vicar of Wakefield’ is the most exquisite.” It is probably the most popular English work of fiction in Germany.]
[Footnote 83: Robert Burns (1759-1796). A celebrated Scottish poet. The most striking characteristics of Burns’ poetry are simplicity and intensity, in which he is scarcely, if at all, inferior to any of the greatest poets that have ever lived.]