from "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Dover Thrift Emerson book pp. 19-33)

Fill in the blanks of circle the letter of the best completion for each statement below.

1. Emerson defined genius as ___ in "Self-Reliance."

a. the ability to convince others that your thoughts are valid

b. the ability to believe that what is true for you is true for all people

c. the ability to keep with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude

d. both a and b

2. If we don't speak our own minds, someone else will ___________________________ and then that person will be able to claim _______________________________ .

3. We have to make the most of what we have in life and not _____ others.

a. imitate b. ignore c. help d. try to decide things for

4. "Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events" means that ___ .

a. we have to believe in God or else we cannot be saved

b. we have to write about the events we see, so as not to forget them

c. we have to enjoy our friends, make the most of our lives, and realize that everything happens for a reason

d. we must realize that Heaven is by no means guaranteed, but that if we lead pious lives, we will be likely to get there

5. "As soon as [a person] has once acted or spoken with éclat, he is a committed person, watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account" means ___ .

a. pretty much the same thing as "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"

b. that once a person has acted a certain way, people always expect him to keep acting that way

c. that we are too much affected by how others see our actions, and whether or not they approve or disapprove

d. all of these

6. " The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs" means that ___ .

a. Society wants people to conform; the opposite of conformity is self-reliance. Conformity is all about labels, habits, and traditions, not about originality.

b. Society wants people to be self-reliant; the opposite of conformity is consistency. Self-reliance is all about labels and habits, not about originality.

c. Conformists ask a lot of questions instead of just relying on what they already know to be true. Honest people dislike self-reliance and prefer to conform to society's expectations.

d. Conformists ask few questions and instead just rely on what they already know to be true. Honest people like self-reliance and refuse to conform to society's expectations.

7. "Man" in the sentence , "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist," can most accurately be interpreted as meaning ___ .

a. male person b. strong, tough person c. productive, complete person d. mankind

8. Emerson illustrates the statement, "Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" with an example touching on ___ .

a. how he'd rather listen to his own nature than to what a minister or someone else tells him

b. how a minister once said a person's nature can be from the Devil, to which Emerson replied that he'd still be wrong not to conform to his own nature regardless

c. how traditions are not really sacred, that the only thing sacred is the law of one's own nature

d. all of these

9. ____________________________ are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is

_________________ my constitution, the only wrong what is ______________________ it.

10. "I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be. . ." means __ .

a. we should give money only to family members, who are blood relatives

b. we should not give to charity, since it makes others lazy; rather we should teach people how to do things for themselves

c. we should help out those people to whom we feel a close bond because their natures are like ours.

d. it is better to live without money as much as possible, since money corrupts and keeps us from making true friendships.

11. "What I must ________ is all that concerns me, not what the people ________________."

from "The American Scholar" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (reprint handout)

For each statement below, write the letter of the BEST completion in the blank at the left.

____ 1. In "the right state," the scholar is

a. a mere thinker b. a parrot of other men's thoughts c. Man Thinking d. an connoisseur of literature

____ 2. By studying Nature, we come to know

a. ourselves better b. how to grow a better garden c. the great writers d. how to think

____ 3. After nature, the next great influence on the scholar is

a. Man Thinking b. books c. himself d. his family

____ 4. Each age must create

a. a revolution b. its own language c. its own literature d. mistakes for the next age to correct

____ 5. Books should be used ____, not ___ .

a. to read … kept on the shelf b. to inspire … to worship c. to free … to oppress d. to know nature … man

____ 6. "The best books" are those that

a. have changed the universe and thereby left an eternal mark b. we can relate to because their message is timeless

c. are read but once, so as not to stifle creativity d. both a and c

____ 7. A scholar must ___, so that he can ___ .

a. not be a recluse… gain worldly experience through living

b. be a recluse … study in peace, unhindered by the hustle and bustle of the modern world

c. read books by great men … become a great man himself

d. attend Emerson's lectures … Emerson can feed his family

____ 8. "Drudgery, calamity, exasperation and want, are ___. "

a. to be avoided at all costs"

b. necessary if we are to be free to live the life of scholars, and not of mere parrots"

c. instructors in eloquence and wisdom"

d. the trilogy of evils by which society seeks to destroy Man Thinking at every turn"

____ 9. Fear springs from ___ .

a. religion b. ignorance c. the adrenal glands d. consistency

____ 10. American scholars should stop concentrating on _____ and instead write about _____ ."

a. foreign wars … peace at home b. the past … the future

c. Gothic scenery … hard science d. Europe … the common American experience

Friendship by RW Emerson

Dover Thrift Edition pp. 39-50.

Use the text of the essay to fill in each blank below correctly. The quotations are in order.

1. Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the universe it should _____________ _____ __________________________, and it would be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years.

2. My friends have come to me _______________. The great _________ gave them to me. … [T]he Deity in me and in them derides and cancels the thick walls of

_____________ _________________________, ___________________, ________, __________, __________________, at which he usually connives, and now makes many one.

3. A new ____________________ is to me a great event, and hinders me from ___________. Thus every man passes his ______________ in

the search after friendship, and if he should record his true sentiment, he might write a letter like this to each new candidate for his ______________.

4. DEAR FRIEND: --

If I was _____________ of thee, sure of thy capacity, sure to match my mood with thine, I should never think again of trifles in relation to thy _______________

and _________________. … I not presume in thee a perfect ____________________ of me, and so thou art to me a _____________ ____________.

Thine ever, or never.

5. I do not wish to treat friendships ________________, but with roughest ___________________. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but

the ___________________ thing we know.

6. There are two elements that go to the composition of friendship, each so sovereign that I can detect no superiority in either, no reason why either should be first

named. One is ________________. A friend is a person with whom I may be __________________ . … The other element of friendship is

____________________.

7. Two may talk and one may hear, but __________________ cannot take part in a conversation of the most _________________ and ___________________ sort.

In good company there is never such discourse between two, across the table, as takes place when you _______________ ______________ ______________.

8. Friendship requires that rare mean betwixt ___________________ and ______________________ , that piques each with the presence of power and of consent in the other party.

9. Better be a ______________ in the _________________ of your friend than his ___________________.

10. Friendship demands a __________________ treatment. We talk of ___________________ our friends, but friends are self-elected. ___________________ is a great part of it

11. Let him be to thee for ever a sort of beautiful _____________, untamable, devoutly revered, and not a

trivial conveniency to be soon ______________ and _______________ ______________.

12. Respect so far the ___________________ laws of this fellowship as not to prejudice its perfect flower by your ________________ for its

____________________. We must be ________________ ______________ before we can be _______________'s.

13. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to __________ ___ ____________ is to ____________ ___________.

14. I do then with my friends as I do with my _________________. I would have them where I can find

them, but I seldom ____________ them. … Then, though I ________________ my ________________, I cannot afford to talk with them and

study their visions, lest I ____________ my ___________________.

15. It has seemed to me lately more possible than I knew, to ____________ ___ ____________ ____________, on ___________ side,

without due _______________________ on the other. Why should I cumber myself with _______________ that the receiver is not capacious?

16. Respond to the following: Why may a new friendship be described as "a delicious torment"? Use some examples from your own experience!

From Walden: "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" (text p. 288-92)

Also read the bio. and background info. on p 286-287.

1. What seems to be Thoreau's attitudes towards ownership of property and possessions?

Which line on p. 288 tells us this (quote it)?

2. Described what happened with Thoreau and the Hollowell Place.

What does he say on p. 289 was the "real attraction" of Hollowell Place was?

What does this tell us about Thoreau as a person?

3. When did Thoreau first begin living at Walden Pond? (p. 290)

4. Fill in the blanks in the following statement:

"I went to the woods because _________________________________________________________, to front only the

_____________________________________________, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that

_______________________________________ ."

What is your opinion on the value of Thoreau's Walden Pond experiment? Do you think it was a good way of accomplishing what Thoreau said in the above statement he set out to do? Why or why not?

5. What word might best describe the sort of life Thoreau thinks a person should live, judging by his advice on p. 291?

6. What might Thoreau have meant by, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us…"?

"On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"

by Henry David Thoreau (p. 222 in Walden and Civil Disobedience, Signet Classics)

1. Thoreau favored a government that governed_________________________ . (222)

2. Thoreau believed that "majority rule" depended mostly on the fact that the majority is ____________________ ___________________ , not that it is usually right. (223)

3. What does Thoreau say should be used to decide right and wrong?_________________________________ (223)

4. Thoreau believed his only obligation was to do what he________________________________________ . (223)

5. When people have an "undue respect for the law," Thoreau says, they end up doing things that are against

________________________________________________________________________________ . (223, bottom)

6. The two political issues that prompted Thoreau to write "Civil Disobedience" were ______________________and the war with

______________________ . (224-225)

7. According to Thoreau, most people won't revolt against the government because _________________

_____________________________________________________________________ . (225-226, 232)

9. The legal channels, such as voting, that people can go through, Thoreau claimed were not really effective. Your vote makes a difference only if

the _____________________ votes the same way. Other channels take too much _____________________________________, and a man's

_________________________ will be over before anything changes. (226 & 229)

11. If the law "requires you to be the agent of ___________________________________ to another, then, I say

__________________________ the law … What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend my self to the

______________________________ which I ____________________________________ . (228-229)

8. Thoreau wished that the government would listen more to the ideas of the __________ _____________(229, top)

rather than always be ruled by the ___________________________________.

13. Thoreau describes how a minority may, through civil disobedience, influence the government when

it______________ s the system because so many people _____________________ the law. (231)

10. Thoreau was more free to commit civil disobedience than were many of people because he had no

_____________________________________for the government to take away or harass . (232)

15. During his night in jail for refusing to pay his _____________ _____________, Thoreau spent his time

____________________________________________________________________________________. (233-236)

16. Thoreau quotes the argument Daniel Webster, lawmaker who says that slavery should remain legal since it was legal when the Constitution was first written.

Why is this not necessarily a valid argument?

What other things were once considered "constitutional" that are now not considered so?

How were changes in these laws effected? (There are two different ways in which things once okay under the Constitution can be made or deemed not so, or vice-versa.)