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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Natural History of Intellect.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What view was reaffirmed, for Emerson, in reading Jakob Boehme's "Aurora?"
(a) That God is in one's own heart.
(b) That experience is man's only freedom.
(c) That divine grace is real.
(d) That Freedom is limited by Fate.

2. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's reaction to Ellen's death?
(a) He says that it gave him absolute faith in the beneficence of the creator.
(b) He says that he never got over it.
(c) He says that he realized that he had not really been in love.
(d) He says that it made him start a life-long search for religious meaning.

3. How did "The Dial" change Emerson's writing?
(a) He was writing shorter works.
(b) He was writing less.
(c) He was writing longer essays.
(d) He stopped writing almost completely.

4. What imagery filled Emerson's prose and poems in 1836?
(a) Health and insanity.
(b) Illness and death.
(c) Travel and arrival.
(d) Forging and birth.

5. What does Richardson say were Emerson's feelings about marriage?
(a) He thought it was the bedrock of civilization.
(b) He thought marriages should allow partners their sexual freedom.
(c) He thought it was a form of imprisonment.
(d) He criticized the institution.

Short Answer Questions

1. What topic did Emerson lecture on after returning home from Europe?

2. How was Emerson received in Europe?

3. What were Emerson's religious beliefs tending toward, at the time of his ordination?

4. What idea did Emerson return to many times after giving his speech on American Scholar?

5. How did Andrews Norton review Emerson's Dartmouth lecture?

(see the answer key)

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