GC3DQM5 - American Literature: Transcendentalists
By: krymdog
1. Here is the puzzle.
Geocache Description:
THIS CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES
The cache is at the following coordinates:
N 46. 0A.BCD W 091. 3E.FGH
The cache is at the following coordinates:
N 46. 0A.BCD W 091. 3E.FGH
This series concentrates solely on American Literature. American Literature can be broken down into eight unique time periods, each with its own identifying characteristics. Arranged chronologically from earliest to latest, they are:
Native Americans
Puritans
Rationalists
Romantics
Transcendentalists
Realists
Modernists
Post-Modernists
Each of the eight American Lit caches will concentrate on one of these time periods. Read the selected works and answer the questions. The correct answers will generate the correct grid coordinates.
Note: I’d do all eight caches before heading out, as all the caches are located in the same general area.
In each of the eight American Lit. mystery caches is a clue for the American Lit: Final Exam cache. I encourage you to take your time with these solves and this series—read the selections to achieve understanding rather than skimming for the answers to the questions. The answers will come with a thorough understanding of the material. Remember—sometimes it’s the journey, not the destination, that’s important.
The Transcendentalists (1830s to 1840s):
Although American Transcendentalism—which lasted only about a decade--was a brief movement in American Literary History, it left a permanent mark on our national psyche. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian minister who became disillusioned after the death of his young wife. He took Romanticism a step further, postulating that not only was individual intuition important, but the individual was the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, and that people should resist conforming to society at all costs. As you can imagine, his ideas very much resonated with the young people at the time, and Emerson’s Concord, Massachusetts home became a Mecca for the great thinkers of his day.
Emerson believed that God, humanity, and all of nature were united in one big spiritual essence called the “Over-Soul,” an idea that didn’t exactly endear him to organized religion. Although the previous Rationalist era actually liked the idea of man functioning in society like one part of a big machine, Emerson despaired at the idea, feeling that the individual’s . . . individuality . . . was being lost. His essay “Self-Reliance” outlines Emerson’s cornerstone beliefs of individuality and non-conformity.
Emerson—from “Self-Reliance”
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
A. What term does Emerson use to describe society?
0. a clock where every person has a part
2. a potential utopia
3. a meat grinder
1. a joint stock company
B. According to Emerson, what is society’s main purpose?
8. to stamp out the individuality of every one of its members
4. to make every person “all they can be”
2. to take care of those who need taking care of
9. to engage in warfare with other societies
C. What is Emerson’s purpose in including the list of names in the last paragraph?
0. To give a “shout out” to some of his fellow thinkers
2. To show the price people pay for failing to conform
7. To make himself sound smarter than he really was
4. To illustrate that some of the greatest minds in history were
misunderstood non-conformists
If Ralph Waldo Emerson was the Sith Lord of American Transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau was his faithful apprentice. Taking Emerson’s ideas a step further, Thoreau actually put Emerson’s ideas of self-reliance and individuality into practice, living at Walden Pond in a cabin he built with his own hands for almost two years. He wrote several essays regarding his experiences, which are compiled together in Thoreau’s masterpiece, entitled “Walden.”
from “Walden,” by Henry David Thoreau
WHERE I LIVED, AND WHAT I LIVED FOR.
AT A CERTAIN season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. I walked over each farmer's premises, tasted his wild apples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price, at any price, mortgaging it to him in my mind; even put a higher price on it- took everything but a deed of it-took his word for his deed, for I dearly love to talk- cultivated it, and him too to some extent, I trust, and withdrew when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on. This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat?--better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life; saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, wood-lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
My imagination carried me so far that I even had the refusal of several farms- the refusal was all I wanted- but I never got my fingers burned by actual possession. The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, and had begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials with which to make a wheelbarrow to carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife- every man has such a wife- changed her mind and wished to keep it, and he offered me ten dollars to release him. Now, to speak the truth, I had but ten cents in the world, and it surpassed my arithmetic to tell, if I was that man who had ten cents, or who had a farm, or ten dollars, or all together. However, I let him keep the ten dollars and the farm too, for I had carried it far enough; or rather, to be generous, I sold him the farm for just what I gave for it, and, as he was not a rich man, made him a present of ten dollars, and still had my ten cents, and seeds, and materials for a wheelbarrow left. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow. With respect to landscapes,
"I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute."
I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk.
The real attractions of the Hollowell farm, to me, were: its complete retirement, being, about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by abroad field; its bounding on the river, which the owner said protected it by its fogs from frosts in the spring, though that was nothing tome; the gray color and ruinous state of the house and barn, and the dilapidated fences, which put such an interval between me and the last occupant; the hollow and lichen-covered apple trees, gnawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors I should have; but above all, the recollection I had of it from my earliest voyages up the river, when the house was concealed behind a dense grove of red maples, through which I heard the house-dog bark. I was in haste to buy it, before the proprietor finished getting out some rocks, cutting down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture, or, in short, had made any more of his improvements. To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders- I never heard what compensation he received for that- and do all those things which had no other motive or excuse but that I might pay for it and be unmolested in my possession of it; for I knew all the while that it would yield the most abundant crop of the kind I wanted, if I could only afford to let it alone. But it turned out as I have said.
All that I could say, then, with respect to farming on a large scale- I have always cultivated a garden- was, that I had had my seeds ready. Many think that seeds improve with age. I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed. But I would say to my fellows, once for all, as long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.
When first I took up my abode in the woods, that is, began to spend my nights as well as days there, which, by accident, was on Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, 1845, my house was not finished for winter, but was merely a defence against the rain, without plastering or chimney, the walls being of rough, weather-stained boards, with wide chinks, which made it cool at night. The upright white hewn studs and freshly planed door and window casings gave it a clean and airy look, especially in the morning, when its timbers were saturated with dew, so that I fancied that by noon some sweet gum would exude from them. To my imagination it retained throughout the day more or less of this auroral character, reminding me of a certain house on a mountain which I had visited a year before. This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments. The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived . . .
D. “Above all,” what was Thoreau’s biggest attraction to the Hollowell place?
1. Its remoteness
9. His earliest memories of it
5. Its proximity to the river
2. Its reputation
E. What does Thoreau mean when he refers to all of Nature as “Olympus?”
4. That’s it’s powerful
5. That it’s heavenly
6. That it’s dangerous
7. That it’s heavily populated with gods
Thoreau’s beliefs of non-conformity led to trouble with the law. When he decided not to pay his taxes in protest of the U.S. instigating the Mexican War, he was thrown in jail. This act of publicly, yet non-violently, breaking laws in order to call attention to issues is known as “civil disobedience”—a practice later adopted by such civil rights leaders as Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
from “Civil Disobedience”
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe - "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
F. How does Thoreau define the best possible kind of government?
5. The kind that defends its people at all costs
7. The kind that adheres to a strict set of laws
4. The kind that has a loosely-interpreted Constitution
6. The kind that doesn’t govern at all
G. According to Thoreau, what will Americans do when they are ready?
7. Join the military for two years of service
4. Dispense with the government altogether
1. Use the American government to conquer other, less worthy countries
5. Adopt an ultra-conservative Constitution
H. Which statement would Thoreau find to be most true?
1. A government acts as an unnecessary impediment to its citizens
5. A government can be a useful tool
8. A government can provide its members with safety and security
3. A government is best when there is a Republican in the White House
Native Americans
Puritans
Rationalists
Romantics
Transcendentalists
Realists
Modernists
Post-Modernists
Each of the eight American Lit caches will concentrate on one of these time periods. Read the selected works and answer the questions. The correct answers will generate the correct grid coordinates.
Note: I’d do all eight caches before heading out, as all the caches are located in the same general area.
In each of the eight American Lit. mystery caches is a clue for the American Lit: Final Exam cache. I encourage you to take your time with these solves and this series—read the selections to achieve understanding rather than skimming for the answers to the questions. The answers will come with a thorough understanding of the material. Remember—sometimes it’s the journey, not the destination, that’s important.
The Transcendentalists (1830s to 1840s):
Although American Transcendentalism—which lasted only about a decade--was a brief movement in American Literary History, it left a permanent mark on our national psyche. Ralph Waldo Emerson was a Unitarian minister who became disillusioned after the death of his young wife. He took Romanticism a step further, postulating that not only was individual intuition important, but the individual was the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, and that people should resist conforming to society at all costs. As you can imagine, his ideas very much resonated with the young people at the time, and Emerson’s Concord, Massachusetts home became a Mecca for the great thinkers of his day.
 |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Emerson believed that God, humanity, and all of nature were united in one big spiritual essence called the “Over-Soul,” an idea that didn’t exactly endear him to organized religion. Although the previous Rationalist era actually liked the idea of man functioning in society like one part of a big machine, Emerson despaired at the idea, feeling that the individual’s . . . individuality . . . was being lost. His essay “Self-Reliance” outlines Emerson’s cornerstone beliefs of individuality and non-conformity.
Emerson—from “Self-Reliance”
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preestablished harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
A. What term does Emerson use to describe society?
0. a clock where every person has a part
2. a potential utopia
3. a meat grinder
1. a joint stock company
B. According to Emerson, what is society’s main purpose?
8. to stamp out the individuality of every one of its members
4. to make every person “all they can be”
2. to take care of those who need taking care of
9. to engage in warfare with other societies
C. What is Emerson’s purpose in including the list of names in the last paragraph?
0. To give a “shout out” to some of his fellow thinkers
2. To show the price people pay for failing to conform
7. To make himself sound smarter than he really was
4. To illustrate that some of the greatest minds in history were
misunderstood non-conformists
 |
| Henry David Thoreau |
If Ralph Waldo Emerson was the Sith Lord of American Transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau was his faithful apprentice. Taking Emerson’s ideas a step further, Thoreau actually put Emerson’s ideas of self-reliance and individuality into practice, living at Walden Pond in a cabin he built with his own hands for almost two years. He wrote several essays regarding his experiences, which are compiled together in Thoreau’s masterpiece, entitled “Walden.”
from “Walden,” by Henry David Thoreau
WHERE I LIVED, AND WHAT I LIVED FOR.
AT A CERTAIN season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house. I have thus surveyed the country on every side within a dozen miles of where I live. In imagination I have bought all the farms in succession, for all were to be bought, and I knew their price. I walked over each farmer's premises, tasted his wild apples, discoursed on husbandry with him, took his farm at his price, at any price, mortgaging it to him in my mind; even put a higher price on it- took everything but a deed of it-took his word for his deed, for I dearly love to talk- cultivated it, and him too to some extent, I trust, and withdrew when I had enjoyed it long enough, leaving him to carry it on. This experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate broker by my friends. Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat?--better if a country seat. I discovered many a site for a house not likely to be soon improved, which some might have thought too far from the village, but to my eyes the village was too far from it. Well, there I might live, I said; and there I did live, for an hour, a summer and a winter life; saw how I could let the years run off, buffet the winter through, and see the spring come in. The future inhabitants of this region, wherever they may place their houses, may be sure that they have been anticipated. An afternoon sufficed to lay out the land into orchard, wood-lot, and pasture, and to decide what fine oaks or pines should be left to stand before the door, and whence each blasted tree could be seen to the best advantage; and then I let it lie, fallow, perchance, for a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.
My imagination carried me so far that I even had the refusal of several farms- the refusal was all I wanted- but I never got my fingers burned by actual possession. The nearest that I came to actual possession was when I bought the Hollowell place, and had begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials with which to make a wheelbarrow to carry it on or off with; but before the owner gave me a deed of it, his wife- every man has such a wife- changed her mind and wished to keep it, and he offered me ten dollars to release him. Now, to speak the truth, I had but ten cents in the world, and it surpassed my arithmetic to tell, if I was that man who had ten cents, or who had a farm, or ten dollars, or all together. However, I let him keep the ten dollars and the farm too, for I had carried it far enough; or rather, to be generous, I sold him the farm for just what I gave for it, and, as he was not a rich man, made him a present of ten dollars, and still had my ten cents, and seeds, and materials for a wheelbarrow left. I found thus that I had been a rich man without any damage to my poverty. But I retained the landscape, and I have since annually carried off what it yielded without a wheelbarrow. With respect to landscapes,
"I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute."
I have frequently seen a poet withdraw, having enjoyed the most valuable part of a farm, while the crusty farmer supposed that he had got a few wild apples only. Why, the owner does not know it for many years when a poet has put his farm in rhyme, the most admirable kind of invisible fence, has fairly impounded it, milked it, skimmed it, and got all the cream, and left the farmer only the skimmed milk.
The real attractions of the Hollowell farm, to me, were: its complete retirement, being, about two miles from the village, half a mile from the nearest neighbor, and separated from the highway by abroad field; its bounding on the river, which the owner said protected it by its fogs from frosts in the spring, though that was nothing tome; the gray color and ruinous state of the house and barn, and the dilapidated fences, which put such an interval between me and the last occupant; the hollow and lichen-covered apple trees, gnawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors I should have; but above all, the recollection I had of it from my earliest voyages up the river, when the house was concealed behind a dense grove of red maples, through which I heard the house-dog bark. I was in haste to buy it, before the proprietor finished getting out some rocks, cutting down the hollow apple trees, and grubbing up some young birches which had sprung up in the pasture, or, in short, had made any more of his improvements. To enjoy these advantages I was ready to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders- I never heard what compensation he received for that- and do all those things which had no other motive or excuse but that I might pay for it and be unmolested in my possession of it; for I knew all the while that it would yield the most abundant crop of the kind I wanted, if I could only afford to let it alone. But it turned out as I have said.
All that I could say, then, with respect to farming on a large scale- I have always cultivated a garden- was, that I had had my seeds ready. Many think that seeds improve with age. I have no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed. But I would say to my fellows, once for all, as long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.
When first I took up my abode in the woods, that is, began to spend my nights as well as days there, which, by accident, was on Independence Day, or the Fourth of July, 1845, my house was not finished for winter, but was merely a defence against the rain, without plastering or chimney, the walls being of rough, weather-stained boards, with wide chinks, which made it cool at night. The upright white hewn studs and freshly planed door and window casings gave it a clean and airy look, especially in the morning, when its timbers were saturated with dew, so that I fancied that by noon some sweet gum would exude from them. To my imagination it retained throughout the day more or less of this auroral character, reminding me of a certain house on a mountain which I had visited a year before. This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments. The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music. The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it. Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere.
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived . . .
D. “Above all,” what was Thoreau’s biggest attraction to the Hollowell place?
1. Its remoteness
9. His earliest memories of it
5. Its proximity to the river
2. Its reputation
E. What does Thoreau mean when he refers to all of Nature as “Olympus?”
4. That’s it’s powerful
5. That it’s heavenly
6. That it’s dangerous
7. That it’s heavily populated with gods
Thoreau’s beliefs of non-conformity led to trouble with the law. When he decided not to pay his taxes in protest of the U.S. instigating the Mexican War, he was thrown in jail. This act of publicly, yet non-violently, breaking laws in order to call attention to issues is known as “civil disobedience”—a practice later adopted by such civil rights leaders as Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
from “Civil Disobedience”
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe - "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
F. How does Thoreau define the best possible kind of government?
5. The kind that defends its people at all costs
7. The kind that adheres to a strict set of laws
4. The kind that has a loosely-interpreted Constitution
6. The kind that doesn’t govern at all
G. According to Thoreau, what will Americans do when they are ready?
7. Join the military for two years of service
4. Dispense with the government altogether
1. Use the American government to conquer other, less worthy countries
5. Adopt an ultra-conservative Constitution
H. Which statement would Thoreau find to be most true?
1. A government acts as an unnecessary impediment to its citizens
5. A government can be a useful tool
8. A government can provide its members with safety and security
3. A government is best when there is a Republican in the White House
Additional Hints (No hints available.)
2. Solve the puzzle.
Self-Reliance
By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
A. What term does Emerson use to describe society?
0. a clock where every person has a part
2. a potential utopia
3. a meat grinder
1. a joint stock company
A = 1
B. According to Emerson, what is society’s main purpose?
8. to stamp out the individuality of every one of its members
4. to make every person “all they can be”
2. to take care of those who need taking care of
9. to engage in warfare with other societies
B = 8
C. What is Emerson’s purpose in including the list of names in the last paragraph?
0. To give a “shout out” to some of his fellow thinkers
2. To show the price people pay for failing to conform
7. To make himself sound smarter than he really was
4. To illustrate that some of the greatest minds in history were misunderstood non-conformists
C = 4
Walden
By: Henry David Thoreau
D. “Above all,” what was Thoreau’s biggest attraction to the Hollowell place?
1. Its remoteness
9. His earliest memories of it
5. Its proximity to the river
2. Its reputation
D = 9
E. What does Thoreau mean when he refers to all of Nature as “Olympus?”
4. That’s it’s powerful
5. That it’s heavenly
6. That it’s dangerous
7. That it’s heavily populated with gods
E = 5
Civil Disobedience
By: Henry David Thoreau
F. How does Thoreau define the best possible kind of government?
5. The kind that defends its people at all costs
7. The kind that adheres to a strict set of laws
4. The kind that has a loosely-interpreted Constitution
6. The kind that doesn’t govern at all
F = 6
G. According to Thoreau, what will Americans do when they are ready?
7. Join the military for two years of service
4. Dispense with the government altogether
1. Use the American government to conquer other, less worthy countries
5. Adopt an ultra-conservative Constitution
G = 4
H. Which statement would Thoreau find to be most true?
1. A government acts as an unnecessary impediment to its citizens
5. A government can be a useful tool
8. A government can provide its members with safety and security
3. A government is best when there is a Republican in the White House
H = 1
Posted Coordinates:
N 46 01.569, W 091 36.268Puzzle Coordinates:
N 46 0A.BCD, W 091 3E.FGHSolved Coordinates:
N 46 01.849, W 091 35.641
3. Verify the Solved Coordinates.
I'm glad I wasn't an English major! Thank God for summaries on the internet! With their help it was a quick solve.
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