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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Emerson become interested in after discovering Hafiz?
(a) The progress of history.
(b) Science.
(c) Prints and music.
(d) Asian history.

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

3. How did Emerson's views on individuality and idealism respond to the immense cultural changes of the 1840s, according to Richardson?
(a) They became more optimistic.
(b) They became more realistic.
(c) They were tempered by doubts.
(d) They stayed the same.

4. What does Richardson say crowds expected from Emerson?
(a) Beautiful speeches.
(b) Encouragement.
(c) Just to see him was enough.
(d) Inspiration.

5. With what point of Goethe's did Emerson conclude his lectures on great men?
(a) That we must put what we know into practice.
(b) That the times had changed, and human life would be something new from this point.
(c) That we have to honor tradition even as we innovate.
(d) That we must find the middle path between action and meditation.

6. How did Emerson see his personal history, according to Richardson?
(a) As the story of the people in his life.
(b) As the story of his most successful essays and poems.
(c) As the raw material out of which men's lives are made.
(d) As the story of his few brilliant experiences.

7. What was Emerson's response to the invitation to join Brook Farm?
(a) He delayed.
(b) He joined.
(c) He never responded, but let the matter fall.
(d) He declined.

8. 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 tried to interest others in buying shares in land to farm communally.
(d) He moved to Brook Farm part-time.

9. With whom did Emerson take walks after returning from Europe?
(a) Margaret Fuller.
(b) Henry David Thoreau.
(c) Ellery Channing.
(d) His children.

10. According to Richardson, what feeling would stay with Emerson for the rest of his life, after the Norton affair?
(a) The pride of accomplishment.
(b) The flush of success.
(c) Doubt about his talents.
(d) The taste of public censure.

11. Which of these concerns did NOT burden Emerson in 1847?
(a) Family matters.
(b) Endless obligations.
(c) Financial problems.
(d) Health problems.

12. What idea of Hegel's did Emerson discover on returning from Europe?
(a) The importance of community.
(b) The importance of the heroic individual.
(c) The importance of marriage.
(d) The importance of history.

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

14. To what cause does Richardson attribute Emerson's moodiness in advance of his trip to Europe?
(a) Correspondence with Thoreau.
(b) Correspondence with Caroline Sturgis.
(c) Correspondence with Anna Barker.
(d) Correspondence with Margaret Fuller.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. To what moral did Emerson point in his use of great men?

2. What brought Emerson to Europe?

3. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's works after he turned forty?

4. What did Emerson turn his house into?

5. What did Emerson do for Carlyle?

(see the answer keys)

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