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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Emerson say are "but physiological colors which the eye makes"?
(a) Reality and perception.
(b) Time and space.
(c) Light and dark.
(d) Belief and wisdom.

2. In the state of having "life in yourself" that Emerson describes, what does he claim is of no account?
(a) A man's own personal interest.
(b) Vast spaces of nature and long intervals of time.
(c) The will and wanting of others.
(d) This world's many riches.

3. What has the world been taught by "this colossal symbol," the world's instructors?
(a) The value of virtue.
(b) The value of loyalty.
(c) The respect due from man to man.
(d) The respect due to the nation's great minds.

4. Emerson announces "The delegation from Essex! The Democrats from New Hampshire!" in an attempt to show that men feel strong under which circumstances?
(a) In offices.
(b) In organizations.
(c) In numbers.
(d) In politics.

5. What does Emerson say goes with him everywhere he goes?
(a) His suggestions.
(b) His guilt.
(c) His trunk.
(d) His giant.

6. What does Emerson say the civilized man no longer know thanks to the Greenwich nautical almanac he has?
(a) The cardinal directions.
(b) The stars in the sky.
(c) The hours of the tides.
(d) The countries of the world.

7. What does Emerson say it requires to "cast off the common motives of humanity"?
(a) Something fierce.
(b) Something ingenious.
(c) Something warlike.
(d) Something godlike.

8. What is a hieroglyphic as referred to in talking about virtue paid to kings, nobles and great proprietors?
(a) A puzzle.
(b) An Egyptian pictogram.
(c) A monument.
(d) A symbol.

9. What does Emerson call history a parable of?
(a) My being and becoming.
(b) Time and space.
(c) Phraseology in another country.
(d) Right and wrong.

10. At which point is a person willing to "let the words go"?
(a) When he or she understands them.
(b) When he or she becomes self-reliant.
(c) When he or she no longer needs them.
(d) When he or she realizes that they are useless.

11. Which faith does Emerson NOT mention as an example of "creeds and churches"?
(a) Lutheranism.
(b) Swedenborgism.
(c) Calvinism.
(d) Quakerism.

12. What is the attribute of the Supreme Cause according to Emerson?
(a) Self-existence.
(b) Self-reliance.
(c) Absolute truth.
(d) Absolute justice.

13. Emerson states, "The way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new." What does he mean?
(a) Each person experiences that state for himself or herself alone.
(b) When we reach that state, we will finally understand what others meant in describing it.
(c) That state can be disconcerting in the beginning.
(d) That state is unlike anything we've ever experienced.

14. What does Emerson say he likes "better than any preaching"?
(a) The look of a full congregation.
(b) The willingness to take action.
(c) The silent church before the service begins.
(d) The quiet of a sanctuary.

15. What does Emerson claim we have become, in stating that man will see that we need his ethics?
(a) Passive snivelers.
(b) Desponding whimperers.
(c) Hopeless whiners.
(d) Dejected complainers.

Short Answer Questions

1. When does Emerson claim power ceases?

2. What does Emerson say we can know about justice?

3. What "plays us false" in history?

4. What will we gladly do when we have "new perception"?

5. Which artist does Emerson say "will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted"?

(see the answer keys)

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