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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Emerson think about being misunderstood?
(a) It's not as bad as people say.
(b) It's a compliment.
(c) It's inevitable.
(d) It's the greatest risk in a great man's life.

2. What does Emerson say he will do if he is the Devil's child?
(a) He will find the doctrines of the church.
(b) He will live from the Devil.
(c) He will live wholly.
(d) He will try to find God.

3. What does Emerson say is the lesson great works of art teach us?
(a) Obey your spontaneous impression.
(b) Art is a matter of personal taste.
(c) There are few true geniuses in the world.
(d) Truly great works of art inspire everyone.

4. Who wrote the verses that Emerson mentions at the beginning of the first paragraph?
(a) A well-known author.
(b) An well-known painter.
(c) An unknown painter.
(d) An unknown sculptor.

5. Emerson explains in his essay exactly what it is that "scares us from self-trust." What is it?
(a) Our religious duty.
(b) Our fear of God.
(c) Our need to please others.
(d) Our need to be the same as others.

6. What reason does Emerson give for good deeds?
(a) Some men do good deeds as a spectacle for others.
(b) Some men do good deeds to quiet their conscience.
(c) Some men do good deeds when they are of decent character.
(d) Some men do good deeds because it is their intrinsic duty.

7. Who does Emerson make an example of when talking about living according to his recommendations?
(a) Great men.
(b) Great artists.
(c) Minors and invalids.
(d) True geniuses.

8. Emerson says boys try and sentence people and facts based on what?
(a) Their characters.
(b) Their own mind.
(c) Their merits.
(d) Their intuition.

9. What does Emerson claim is the virtue "in most request"?
(a) Self-reliance.
(b) Formidability.
(c) Innocence.
(d) Conformity.

10. What does Emerson say a great soul may as well concern himself with as with consistency?
(a) His own sense of self.
(b) His idea of divinity.
(c) His own hobbies and interests.
(d) His shadow on the wall.

11. What does Emerson mean by the word "meanness" when he writes: "This rule ... may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness"?
(a) Harshness.
(b) Spitefulness.
(c) Hatefulness.
(d) Plainness.

12. What does "Ne te quaesiveris extra" mean?
(a) Every man should do extra work.
(b) Do not reach outside yourself.
(c) Do not look outside yourself.
(d) Man is his own star.

13. What does Emerson say boys don't worry about?
(a) Their consciousness.
(b) What others think.
(c) Consequences.
(d) Being genuine.

14. What "...may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted..."?
(a) The character that makes an impression on us.
(b) Our own preestablished harmony.
(c) The power that resides in us.
(d) The divine idea each of us represents.

15. What does Emerson suggest one should accept in regards to divine providence?
(a) The work divine providence has allotted them.
(b) The feelings divine providence has instilled in them.
(c) The ideas divine providence has instilled in them.
(d) The place divine providence has found for them.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Emerson say it is easy to live after your own opinion?

2. What does Emerson say Joseph does with his coat?

3. How does Emerson say he knows it makes no difference whether he does or forbears "...those actions which are reckoned excellent"?

4. What rule of wisdom does Emerson seem to find in his discussion of society's views of past acts?

5. What does Emerson say is a conspiracy against manhood?

(see the answer keys)

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