[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.
[38] Pecuniary foundations. Gifts of money for the support of institutions of learning.
[39] Wit is here used in its early sense of intellect, good understanding.
[40] Valetudinarian. A person of a weak, sickly constitution.
[42] Preamble. A preface or introduction.
[43] Dumb abyss. That vast immensity of the universe about us which we can never understand.
[44] I comprehend its laws; I lose my fear of it.
[45] Silkworms feed on mulberry-leaves. Emerson describes what science calls "unconscious cerebration."
[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.
[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."
[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.
[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.
[51] Savoyards. The people of Savoy, south of Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
[52] Emerson's style is characterized by the frequent use of pithy epigrams like this.
[53] Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). A great English philosopher and mathematician. He is famous as having discovered the law of gravitation.
[54] Unhandselled. Uncultivated, without natural advantages. A handsel is a gift.
[55] Druids. The ancient priesthood of the Britons in Cæsar'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 they made human sacrifices to their gods in the depths of the primeval forest, but not much is known of their rites.
[56] Berserkers. Berserker was a redoubtable hero in Scandinavian mythology, the grandson of the eight-handed Starkodder and the beautiful Alfhilde. He had twelve sons who inherited the wild-battle frenzy, or berserker rage. The sagas, the great Scandinavian epics, are full of stories of heroes who are seized with this fierce longing for battle, murder, and sudden death. The name means bear-shirt and has been connected with the old were-wolf tradition, the myth that certain people were able to change into man-devouring wolves with a wolfish mad desire to rend and kill.