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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Nature.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who died in 1834?
(a) Mary Moody Emerson.
(b) Emerson's brother Edward.
(c) Emerson's brother Charles.
(d) Emerson's mother.

2. How did Emerson change after opening Ellen's casket?
(a) He began to believe in the life of the spirit.
(b) He began to see the importance of scientific study.
(c) He became morbid in his writing.
(d) He decided to focus on the living.

3. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's relation to other writers?
(a) He is terrified before each of them, and has to figure out how to defend himself against their work.
(b) He assimilates the best part of each work, and discards the rest.
(c) He is greater than them, and finds himself in each of them.
(d) He is afraid of his own attraction to others' ideas, and learns to protect against his identification with others.

4. On whom did Emerson's reading focus after he graduated from Harvard?
(a) Platonic philosophers.
(b) Romantic poets.
(c) German Transcendentalists.
(d) Scottish Common Sense philosophers.

5. What topic did Emerson lecture on after returning home from Europe?
(a) Biography.
(b) Science.
(c) Religion.
(d) Literature.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Emerson reading of Bronson Alcott's, after settling down with Lidian?

2. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's perspective on approaching Europe?

3. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's household in 1835-1836?

4. What stance did Emerson take on American literature?

5. What view was reaffirmed, for Emerson, in reading Jakob Boehme's "Aurora?"

(see the answer key)

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