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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was Emerson reading of Bronson Alcott's, after settling down with Lidian?
(a) Philosophy.
(b) Views of childhood.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Theories of education.

2. Why was Emerson's meeting with Carlyle a "white day in his years"?
(a) He and Carlyle challenged each other to define a new philosophy for the modern age.
(b) He and Carlyle discovered that they were related.
(c) He and Carlyle discovered a deep and productive antagonism.
(d) He and Carlyle became fast friends.

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

4. What troubled Emerson during his travels to the South?
(a) His engagement to Ellen Tucker.
(b) His religious faith.
(c) Slavery.
(d) His divinity studies.

5. What 1837 event related to slavery does Richardson say affected Emerson's emotional state?
(a) The removal of the Cherokee.
(b) The Missouri compromise.
(c) The murder of an abolitionist.
(d) The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law.

6. What publication did Emerson call a "living leaping Logos"?
(a) Fuller's translation of Eckermann's "Conversations with Goethe."
(b) Nature.
(c) Hedge's manifesto.
(d) Alcott's "Conversations with Children about the Gospels."

7. What did this turning point do for Emerson?
(a) It gave him the confidence to pursue his studies.
(b) It filled him with knowledge of the classics.
(c) It introduced him to people who could forward his career.
(d) It centered his attention on his own experience.

8. What did Emerson suffer in 1837?
(a) The death of his brother.
(b) The loss of his son.
(c) Economic troubles.
(d) The loss of his wife.

9. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's feelings about the changes he made after Ellen's death?
(a) Fear and freedom.
(b) Depression and doubt.
(c) Moderation and deliberation.
(d) Exhilaration and vision.

10. What idea of Emerson's influenced Richardson's biography?
(a) That men can only be known through their historical context.
(b) That the lives of great mean can tell us about all men.
(c) That some men's lives define the extremes of human experience.
(d) That men are best described by the women in their lives.

11. When did Emerson meet Lydia Jackson?
(a) 1829.
(b) 1834.
(c) 1832.
(d) 1836.

12. What does Richardson say was happening as Emerson and his brother Charles grew closer?
(a) Charles was expecting his first child.
(b) Charles was subscribing to Emerson's new confidence about religion.
(c) Charles was leaving the church.
(d) Charles' health was declining.

13. What was the title of Emerson's first sermon?
(a) "Self-Reliance."
(b) "Pray without Ceasing."
(c) "The Wreck of All Earthly Good."
(d) "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

14. Where in his career was Emerson, in the scene Richardson describes in the Prologue?
(a) In its decline.
(b) At its peak.
(c) At rock bottom.
(d) At the beginning.

15. What was the title of the lecture series Emerson delivered in 1837?
(a) "The Uses of Great Men".
(b) "Refuse Great Models".
(c) "Human Culture".
(d) "Self-Reliance".

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Emerson's family's economic status when Emerson was in college?

2. What vow does Richardson say Emerson made to himself while he was writing Nature?

3. On whom did Emerson's reading focus after he graduated from Harvard?

4. What was the Transcendental Club founded to discuss?

5. Who influenced Emerson during this turning point?

(see the answer keys)

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