What compensations are there for our calamities? Show how this law of compensation is illustrated in the acts of some of the characters that you have studied in fiction: for example, Shylock, Ivanhoe, Isaac, Portia, Godfrey Cass, Silas Marner. _Friendship_ What is the theme of this essay? How is friendship different from companionship? How do friends enlarge and improve us? Why often do "Our friendships hurry to short and poor conclusions"? (p. 145). What are the two elements that go to the composition of friendship? Illustrate each. What is Emerson's idea about the possibility of helpful conversation where more than two take part? Discuss, to show the measure of truth that it contains. What, in the persons themselves, is necessary for the most helpful conversation? To what extent is it true that "friends are self-elected"? (p. 154). What are the requirements for perfect friendship? (pp. 154-157). Why would Emerson do with his friends as with his books? (p. 158). (See _The American Scholar_, pp. 38-44.) Do you think that he would have us become recluses? Would he have us make no friendships except ideal ones? Try to summarize the truth of this essay in your own words for those of your own age. _Prudence_ Explain and illustrate the meaning of prudence. What is the theme of this essay? What reason does Emerson give for discussing it? Explain his classification in paragraph beginning "There are all degrees of proficiency" (p. 164). How does the cultured man's view of prudence differ from that of the man who lacks culture? By referring to the comedies that you know, verify the statement, "The spurious prudence ... is the subject of all comedy" (p. 165). What are the "petty experiences which usurp the hours and years"? (p. 167). How are we instructed by them? How does nature punish neglect of prudence? Name some of the imprudences of men in general, of men of genius, of scholars (pp. 171-173). What is the result of such imprudence? Why is prudence called a _minor_ virtue? (p. 175). To what conclusion does the discussion lead? _Shakespeare; or, The Poet_ What is the theme of this essay? Explain fully the meaning of originality. What is more important in a man of genius than originality? Illustrate. In Shakespeare's youth how were dramatic entertainments regarded? What material did Shakespeare find at first to work upon? What were the great sources of his material in the plays with which you are familiar? Have other writers felt free to borrow as they pleased? What is their justification? Explain the meaning of: "It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no man's work" (p. 191). What have scholars and Shakespeare societies found out about Shakespeare? How did his contemporaries regard him? Explain: "Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shakespeare" (p. 198), and "He is the one person, in all modern history, known to us" (p. 200).