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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Emerson say about communion in "The Lord's Supper"?
(a) It should only be observed as part of Last Rites.
(b) It is the most important ritual in Christianity.
(c) It was a miracle that is downplayed in the Bible.
(d) It is a meaningless ritual.

2. According to Emerson's "The Over-Soul", which of the following is NOT the essence of the over-soul?
(a) Intellectual discussion.
(b) Spirituality.
(c) An indwelling sense of God.
(d) Human consciousness.

3. What does Emerson call prudence, according to "Prudence"?
(a) The beginning of the end.
(b) The path to peace.
(c) The way of men.
(d) The virtue of the senses.

4. Who was Plato's teacher?
(a) Confucius.
(b) He was self-taught.
(c) Socrates.
(d) Immanuel Kant.

5. What right of individuals has never been tried as the foundation of a state?
(a) Love.
(b) Trust.
(c) Employment.
(d) Reverence.

6. According to Emerson, it is the challenge of American scholars to foster and support the development of truly American ______ and ______.
(a) Thought; language.
(b) Language; literature.
(c) Culture; literature.
(d) Thought; culture.

7. How was "The Transcendentalist" originally delivered?
(a) As a letter to Henry David Thoreau.
(b) As a commencement address.
(c) As a eulogy.
(d) As a lecture.

8. What, with friendship, creates a "cordial goodwill," according to "Friendship"?
(a) Goodwill.
(b) Cordiality.
(c) Love.
(d) Nothing; all that is needed is friendship.

9. How do people try to change old patterns in their lives?
(a) Education and philosophy.
(b) Rebelling against the way they were raised.
(c) Art and music.
(d) Drugs and alcohol.

10. If the people within a commune did not work equally, what does Emerson say the harder-working individuals would do?
(a) Create a hierarchy and rule the weaker workers.
(b) Defect and seek fortunes in the larger world.
(c) Defect and start another commune.
(d) Grow agitated and start fighting among themselves.

11. Who or what is a part of nature, according to "Nature"?
(a) Philosophy.
(b) Architecture.
(c) Man.
(d) Progress.

12. According to "An Address", what subverts the truly moral character of man?
(a) American politics.
(b) European academia.
(c) Industry.
(d) Christianity.

13. Whom does Emerson especially urge to experience their own heroism?
(a) Women.
(b) The downtrodden.
(c) Children.
(d) Religious mystics.

14. What does Emerson say people hope to have happen to old patterns?
(a) To forget them.
(b) To find others who share them.
(c) To learn from them.
(d) To be shocked out of them.

15. In what year was "Nature" published?
(a) 1834.
(b) 1835.
(c) 1837.
(d) 1836.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why are nominalists more popular?

2. In what year was Plato born?

3. To whom does Emerson attribute the term "transcendentalism"?

4. How does Emerson say one should keep a healthy balance on earth, according to "Compensation"?

5. Who is the author of "Selected Writings"?

(see the answer keys)

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