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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's response to his son's death?
(a) He was assured of an afterlife.
(b) He was destroyed.
(c) He was inspired.
(d) He was devastated.

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

3. What does Emerson try to connect ecstasy to in his essay on ecstasy?
(a) Language.
(b) History.
(c) Sex.
(d) Nature.

4. Whose book impressed Emerson during his travels?
(a) Carlyle.
(b) Margaret Fuller.
(c) Hegel.
(d) Quetelet.

5. For how long was Emerson the editor of "The Dial?"
(a) Six months.
(b) Two years.
(c) Four years.
(d) Three years.

6. What did Margaret Fuller ask Emerson for in 1840?
(a) Money.
(b) Advice for her writing.
(c) A recommendation.
(d) A closer relationship.

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

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

9. 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 history.
(d) The importance of marriage.

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

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

12. What did Emerson begin to write about after returning to America?
(a) The political events he witnessed.
(b) His trip to England.
(c) Getting older and facing death.
(d) The realizations he had in the Paris Jardin des Plantes.

13. On what theme did Emerson's letters and journals begin to focus after Margaret Fuller's death?
(a) Self-reliance.
(b) The sea.
(c) Freedom.
(d) Time.

14. How does Richardson characterize 1844 in Emerson's life?
(a) A year of beginnings.
(b) A year of transition.
(c) A year of endings.
(d) A year of losses.

15. What objection did Emerson make to Charles Fourier's utopian ideas?
(a) He was too dependent on science.
(b) He had too much faith in people.
(c) He was too pessimistic.
(d) He was too optimistic.

Short Answer Questions

1. What took Emerson to New York?

2. What did Emerson say about women's rights?

3. How did Emerson's views on individuality and idealism respond to the immense cultural changes of the 1840s, according to Richardson?

4. What theme does Richardson say Emerson began to write about as he turned forty?

5. Where did Emerson travel after returning from Europe?

(see the answer keys)

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