Page 198, note 1. Mr. Emerson said to a young scholar, "I am glad you have so many of the Greek Tragedies. Read them largely and swiftly in translation to get their movement and flow; and then a little in the original every day. For the Greek is the fountain of language. The Latin has a definite shore-line, but the Greek is without bounds."
Page 199, note 1. "Read in Plato and you shall find Christian dogmas, and not only so, but stumble on our evangelical phrases."—"Quotation and Originality," Letters and Social Aims.
Page 199, note 2. Mr. Emerson's estimate of Plato may be read in full in Representative Men and of Plutarch in the essay of that name in Lectures and Biographical Sketches.
Page 201, note 1. Mr. Emerson himself never enjoyed Aristophanes, but read the comedies for such light as they gave on the age and country. Journal, 1865. "I am delighted to-day, in reading Schwegler's account of Socrates, to have justice done to Aristophanes. The rogue gets his dues."
Page 202, note 1. In a lecture given in Boston in 1861, called "Some Good Books," Mr. Emerson said:—
"What vitality has the Platonic Philosophy! I remember I expected a revival in the churches to be caused by reading Jamblichus. …
"When I read Proclus, I am astonished with the vigor and breadth of his performance. Here is an Atlantic strength which is everywhere equal to itself, and dares great attempts, because of the life with which it feels itself filled. Such a sense as dwells in these purple deeps of Proclus transforms every page into a slab of marble, and the book seems monumental. They suggest what magnificent dreams and projects! They show what literature should be. Rarely, rarely does the Imagination awake."
