[Footnote 34:  Andrew Marvell (1620-1678).  An eminent English patriot and satirist.  As a writer he is chiefly known by his “Rehearsal Transposed,” written in answer to a fanatical defender of absolute power.  When a young man he was assistant to the poet Milton, who was then Latin secretary to Oliver Cromwell.  Marvell’s wit and distinguished abilities rendered him formidable to the corrupt administration of Charles II., who attempted without success to buy his friendship.  Emerson’s literary perspective is a bit unusual when he speaks of Marvell as “one of the great English poets.”  Marvell hardly ranks with Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton.]

[Footnote 35:  John Dryden (1631-1700).  A celebrated English poet.  Early in life he wrote almost entirely for the stage and achieved great success.  In the latter part of his life, however, according to Macaulay, he “turned his powers in a new direction with success the most splendid and decisive.  The first rank in poetry was beyond his reach, but he secured the most honorable place in the second....  With him died the secret of the old poetical diction of England,—­the art of producing rich effects by familiar words.”]

[Footnote 36:  Plato (429-347 B.C.).  One of the most illustrious philosophers of all time.  Probably no other philosopher has contributed so much as Plato to the moral and intellectual training of the human race.  This pre-eminence is due not solely to his transcendent intellect, but also in no small measure to his poetic power and to that unrivaled grace of style which led the ancients to say that if Jove should speak Greek he would speak like Plato.  He was a remarkable example of that universal culture of body and mind which 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.]