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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Emerson call his house after he changed how it was used?
(a) The Bush Community.
(b) Erehwon.
(c) Brook Farm.
(d) The Homestead.

2. What does Richardson say is Emerson's last characteristic book?
(a) His book on England.
(b) Essays 1844.
(c) Representative Men.
(d) The 1844 Essays.

3. To what moral did Emerson point in his use of great men?
(a) That all men are representative of their race and times.
(b) That common men are qualitatively different from exceptional men.
(c) That uniqueness is a burden only strong men can bear.
(d) That there are no common people.

4. What side of Emerson was apparent in the volume of poems he published in 1846?
(a) Divine.
(b) Political strategist.
(c) Calm stoic.
(d) Passionate romantic.

5. How did Margaret Fuller Ossoli die?
(a) Childbirth.
(b) Shipwreck.
(c) Murder.
(d) Illness.

6. Who is Osman?
(a) Emerson's aunt.
(b) Emerson's nephew.
(c) Emerson's servant.
(d) Emerson's daemon.

7. How did Andrews Norton review Emerson's Dartmouth lecture?
(a) Harshly.
(b) Slyly.
(c) Jubilantly.
(d) Bitterly.

8. What did Jones Very claim to be?
(a) The Messiah.
(b) The first genuine American Poet.
(c) Emerson's first disciple.
(d) Insane.

9. What was the subject of Emerson's speech at Dartmouth?
(a) The superiority of American literature to British poetry.
(b) The debt Americans owed to Britain.
(c) The inadequacy of American creativity.
(d) The danger of contamination by British thought.

10. What was Emerson's response to the publicity that arose from Andrews Norton's article?
(a) He answered Norton publicly.
(b) He made overtures to Norton through friends.
(c) He stayed out of it.
(d) He corresponded with Norton's superiors.

11. With what view of Emerson's did his friends disagree, according to Richardson?
(a) His positive view of Indian removal.
(b) His focus on writing above all else.
(c) His positive view of business.
(d) His isolationism.

12. In what way did Emerson try to form a commune?
(a) He helped utopianists make their plans for communes in New York.
(b) He tried to get friends to move to his neighborhood.
(c) He moved to Brook Farm part-time.
(d) He tried to interest others in buying shares in land to farm communally.

13. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's career as a lecturer?
(a) A distraction from his writing.
(b) A bother and source of dismay.
(c) Taxing but enjoyable.
(d) The fulfillment of his ministerial personality.

14. What idea of the author's does Richardson say Emerson followed "surprisingly far?"
(a) Doubt about the possibility of transcendent experience.
(b) Respect for historical determinism.
(c) Faith in evolutionary processes.
(d) Disregard for individuality.

15. What does Richardson say Emerson found in Whitman?
(a) A poet to measure himself against.
(b) The great modern poet America needed.
(c) His successor.
(d) The fulfillment of his philosophy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Emerson do for Carlyle?

2. Who was Hafiz?

3. What idea of Hegel's did Emerson discover on returning from Europe?

4. How does Richardson characterize "The Dial?"

5. What did Emerson turn his house into?

(see the answer keys)

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