Self Reliance and Other Essays Lesson Plan

Is there a difference between temperament and character? If so, what is it? If not, why do you think Emerson uses two different words for one concept?

Students will find it useful to refer to Paragraphs 5-7, in which Emerson says "Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are strung" and "There is an optical illusion about every person we meet. In truth they are all creatures of given temperament, which will appear in a given character, whose boundaries they will never pass; but we look at them, they seem alive, and we presume there is impulse in them." They might also reconcile these paragraphs with Emerson's statement, "The force of character is cumulative,"...