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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What practice did Emerson begin in college?
(a) Holding dinner parties for intellectuals.
(b) Sending money to his mother.
(c) Keeping a journal.
(d) Writing poetry.

2. The Mind on Fire is the story of what?
(a) Emerson's family.
(b) Emerson's literary development.
(c) Emerson's intellectual career.
(d) Emerson's marriage.

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

4. Who does Richardson credit with the birth of American Transcendentalism?
(a) Frederic Hedge.
(b) Bronson Alcott.
(c) Jones Very.
(d) Emerson.

5. What does Richardson say was revealed by the publication of Nature?
(a) That modern culture was confirming ancient religious knowledge.
(b) That American religion was pantheistic.
(c) That American religion was essentially capitalistic.
(d) That new ideas of religion were coming from modern culture.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what way did Emerson share a faith with Mary Rotch and the Quakers?

2. How does Richardson characterize the year 1834 in Emerson's life?

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

4. How does Richardson characterize Emerson's internal state in 1837?

5. What imagery filled Emerson's prose and poems in 1836?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Richardson describe the birth of American Transcendentalism?

2. Where did Emerson travel in Europe?

3. What was Emerson's relationship with Margaret Fuller?

4. What is Emerson doing when Richardson introduces us to him?

5. What kinds of images does Richardson say dominated Emerson's thinking and writing in 1836?

6. What was Emerson's relationship with tuberculosis?

7. What was Emerson's relation with Hume?

8. How was Emerson's "American Scholar" talk received?

9. How does Richardson describe Emerson as a student?

10. What view of Jakob Boehme's did Emerson pick up?

(see the answer keys)

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