hich
characterized the last period of ancient Greece. He was proficient in
every branch of art and learning and was such a brilliant athlete that
he contended in the Isthmian and Pythian games.]

[Footnote 37: Gowns. The black gown worn occasionally in America and
always in England at the universities; the distinctive academic dress
is a cap and gown.]

[Footnote 38: Pecuniary foundations. Gifts of money for the support of
institutions of learning.]

[Footnote 39: Wit is here used in its early sense of intellect, good
understanding.]

[Footnote 40: Valetudinarian. A person of a weak, sickly
constitution.]

[Footnote 41: Mincing. Affected.]

[Footnote 42: Preamble. A preface or introduction.]

[Footnote 43: Dumb abyss. That vast immensity of the universe about us
which we can never understand.]

[Footnote 44: I comprehend its laws; I lose my fear of it.]

[Footnote 45: Silkworms feed on mulberry-leaves. Emerson describes
what science calls "unconscious cerebration."]

[Footnote 46: Ripe fruit. Emerson's ripe fruit found its way into his
diary, where it lay until he needed it in the preparation of some
lecture or essay.]

[Footnote 47: I. Corinthians xv. 53.]

[Footnote 48: Empyrean. The region of pure light and fire; the ninth
heaven of ancient astronomy.

"The deep-domed empyrean
Rings to the roar of an angel onset."

]

[Footnote 49: Ferules. According to the methods of education fifty
years ago, it was quite customary for the teacher to punish a
school-child with his ferule or ruler.]

[Footnote 50: Oliver Wendell Holmes cites this last sentence as the
most extreme development of the distinctively Emersonian style. Such
things must be read not too literally but rapidly, with alert
attention to what the previous train of thought has been.]

[Footnote 51: Savoyards. The people of Savoy, south of Lake Geneva in
Switzerland.]

[Footnote 52: Emerson's style is characterized by the frequent use of
pithy epigrams like this.]

[Footnote 53: Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). A great English
philosopher and mathematician. He is famous as having discovered the
law of gravitation.]

[Footnote 54: Unhandselled. Uncultivated, without natural advantages.
A handsel is a gift.]

[Footnote 55: Druids. The ancient priesthood of the Britons in Caesar's
time. They had immense power among these primitive peoples. They were
the judges as well as the priests and decided all questions. It is
believed that th