Authorities.   Number of times mentioned. 
Shakespeare.....112
Napoleon.........84
Plato............81
Plutarch.........70
Goethe...........62
Swift............49
Bacon............47
Milton...........46
Newton...........43
Homer............42
Socrates.........42
Swedenborg.......40
Montaigne........30
Saadi............30
Luther...........30
Webster..........27
Aristotle........25
Hafiz............25
Wordsworth.......25
Burke............24
Saint Paul.......24
Dante............22
Shattuck (Hist. of
Concord).......21
Chaucer..........20
Coleridge........20
Michael Angelo...20
The name of Jesus occurs fifty-four times.

It is interesting to observe that Montaigne, Franklin, and Emerson all show the same fondness for Plutarch.

Montaigne says, “I never settled myself to the reading of any book of solid learning but Plutarch and Seneca.”

Franklin says, speaking of the books in his father’s library, “There was among them Plutarch’s Lives, which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage.”

Emerson says, “I must think we are more deeply indebted to him than to all the ancient writers.”

Studies of life and character were the delight of all these four moralists.  As a judge of character, Dr. Hedge, who knew Emerson well, has spoken to me of his extraordinary gift, and no reader of “English Traits” can have failed to mark the formidable penetration of the intellect which looked through those calm cerulean eyes.

Noscitur a sociis is as applicable to the books a man most affects as well as to the companions he chooses.  It is with the kings of thought that Emerson most associates.  As to borrowing from his royal acquaintances his ideas are very simple and expressed without reserve.

“All minds quote.  Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment.  There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.  By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.”

What Emerson says of Plutarch applies very nearly to himself.

“In his immense quotation and allusion we quickly cease to discriminate between what he quotes and what he invents.  We sail on his memory into the ports of every nation, enter into every private property, and do not stop to discriminate owners, but give him the praise of all.”

Mr. Ruskin and Lord Tennyson have thought it worth their while to defend themselves from the charge of plagiarism.  Emerson would never have taken the trouble to do such a thing.  His mind was overflowing with thought as a river in the season of flood, and was full of floating fragments from an endless variety of sources.  He drew ashore whatever he wanted that would serve his purpose.  He makes no secret of his mode of writing.  “I dot evermore in my endless journal, a line on every knowable in nature; but the arrangement loiters long, and I get a brick-kiln instead of a house.”  His journal is “full of disjointed dreams and audacities.”  Writing by the aid of this, it is natural enough that he should speak of his “lapidary style” and say “I build my house of boulders.”