The Education of Henry Adams (Webster's German Thesaurus Edition)

505 Pages·2006·4.14 MB·English

by  Henry Adams

THE EDUCATION OF
HENRY ADAMS

WEBSTER'S GERMAN THESAURUS
EDITION
for ESL, EFL, ELP, TOEFL®, TOEIC®, and AP® Test Preparation

Henry Adams

TOEFL, TOEIC, AP and Advanced Placementare trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which has
neither reviewed nor endorsed this book. All rights reserved.
The Education of
Henry Adams
Webster's German
Thesaurus Edition

for ESL, EFL, ELP, TOEFL®, TOEIC®, and AP® Test
Preparation

Henry Adams

TOEFL®, TOEIC®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which
has neither reviewed nor endorsed this book. All rights reserved.
ii
ICON CLASSICS

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The Education of Henry Adams: Webster's German Thesaurus Edition for ESL, EFL, ELP, TOEFL®,
TOEIC®, and AP® Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005
Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.
Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

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TOEFL®, TOEIC®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are trademarks of the Educational Testing
Service which has neither reviewed nor endorsed this book. All rights reserved.

ISBN 0-497-25776-9
iii

Contents

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR..........................................................................................1

EDITOR’S PREFACE.........................................................................................................2

PREFACE..........................................................................................................................5

CHAPTER I QUINCY (1838-1848).....................................................................................7

CHAPTER II BOSTON (1848-1854).................................................................................25

CHAPTER III WASHINGTON (1850-1854)........................................................................40

CHAPTER IV HARVARD COLLEGE (1854-1858).............................................................53

CHAPTER V BERLIN (1858-1859)...................................................................................68

CHAPTER VI ROME (1859-1860)....................................................................................79

CHAPTER VII TREASON (1860-1861).............................................................................94

CHAPTER VIII DIPLOMACY (1861)...............................................................................105

CHAPTER IX FOES OR FRIENDS (1862).......................................................................121

CHAPTER X POLITICAL MORALITY (1862)....................................................................137

CHAPTER XI THE BATTLE OF THE RAMS (1863).........................................................158

CHAPTER XII ECCENTRICITY (1863)............................................................................170

CHAPTER XIII THE PERFECTION OF HUMAN SOCIETY (1864).....................................183

CHAPTER XIV DILETTANTISM (1865-1866)..................................................................196

CHAPTER XV DARWINISM (1867-1868).......................................................................210

CHAPTER XVI THE PRESS (1868)................................................................................222

CHAPTER XVII PRESIDENT GRANT (1869)...................................................................238

CHAPTER XVIII FREE FIGHT (1869-1870)....................................................................250

CHAPTER XIX CHAOS (1870).......................................................................................264

CHAPTER XX FAILURE (1871).....................................................................................278

CHAPTER XXI TWENTY YEARS AFTER (1892)..............................................................292

CHAPTER XXII CHICAGO (1893)..................................................................................308

CHAPTER XXIII SILENCE (1894-1898).........................................................................322

CHAPTER XXIV INDIAN SUMMER (1898-1899)............................................................337

CHAPTER XXV THE DYNAMO AND THE VIRGIN (1900)................................................352

CHAPTER XXVI TWILIGHT (1901)................................................................................363

CHAPTER XXVII TEUFELSDROCKH (1901)..................................................................374

CHAPTER XXVIII THE HEIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE (1902)..............................................387

CHAPTER XXIX THE ABYSS OF IGNORANCE (1902)....................................................396
iv

CHAPTER XXX VIS INERTIAE (1903)............................................................................406

CHAPTER XXXI THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE (1903)...................................................418

CHAPTER XXXII VIS NOVA (1903-1904).......................................................................430

CHAPTER XXXIII A DYNAMIC THEORY OF HISTORY (1904).........................................441

CHAPTER XXXIV A LAW OF ACCELERATION (1904)....................................................455

CHAPTER XXXV NUNC AGE (1905)..............................................................................464

GLOSSARY...................................................................................................................470
Henry Adams 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently assigned readings in
English courses. By using a running English-to-German thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams was edited for three audiences. The
first includes German-speaking students enrolled in an English Language Program (ELP), an
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program, an English as a Second Language Program (ESL),
or in a TOEFL® or TOEIC® preparation program. The second audience includes English-speaking
students enrolled in bilingual education programs or German speakers enrolled in English speaking
schools. The third audience consists of students who are actively building their vocabularies in
German in order to take foreign service, translation certification, Advanced Placement® (AP®)1 or
similar examinations. By using the Webster's German Thesaurus Edition when assigned for an
English course, the reader can enrich their vocabulary in anticipation of an examination in German
or English.

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
difficult and potentially ambiguous English words. Rare or idiosyncratic words and expressions are
given lower priority compared to “difficult, yet commonly used” words. Rather than supply a single
translation, many words are translated for a variety of meanings in German, allowing readers to
better grasp the ambiguity of English, and avoid them using the notes as a pure translation crutch.
Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within context serves to improve vocabulary
retention and understanding. Each page covers words not already highlighted on previous pages. If
a difficult word is not translated on a page, chances are that it has been translated on a previous
page. A more complete glossary of translations is supplied at the end of the book; translations are
extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-
dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 T O E F L ® , T O E I C ® , A P ® a n d A d v a n c e d P l a cement® are trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which
has neither reviewed nor endorsed this book. All rights reserved.
2 The Education of Henry Adams

EDITOR’S %PREFACE

THIS volume, written in 1905 as a sequel to the same author’s “Mont Saint
Michel and Chartres,” was privately printed, to the number of one hundred
copies, in 1906, and sent to the persons interested, for their assent, correction, or
suggestion. The idea of the two books was thus explained at the end of Chapter
XXIX:—
“Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured by motion
from a fixed point. Psychology helped here by suggesting a unit—the point of
history when man held the highest idea of himself as a unit in a unified universe.
Eight or ten years of study had led Adams to think he might use the century
1150-1250, expressed in Amiens Cathedral and the Works of Thomas Aquinas, as
the unit from which he might measure motion down to his own time, without
assuming anything as true or untrue, except relation. The movement might be
studied at once in philosophy and mechanics. Setting himself to the task, he
began a volume which he mentally knew as ‘Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres: a
Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity.’ From that point he proposed to fix a
position for himself, which he could label: ‘The Education of Henry Adams: a
Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity.’ With the help of these two points of
relation, he hoped to project his lines forward and backward indefinitely,
subject to correction from any one who should know better.”

German
assent: Zustimmung, zustimmen, Richtigstellung. Maschinenbaukunde.
bejahen, ja sagen. fix: befestigen, befestigt, befestige, mentally: geistig.
assuming: annehmend, anmassend, befestigst, reparieren, fixieren, privately: privat.
Unterstellen, angenommen, festsetzen, fixiere, anberaumen, setze psychology: Psychologie.
Annehmen. fest, setzt fest. schoolboy: Schüler, Schuljunge.
backward: rückwärts, zurück, indefinitely: unendlich, auf sequel: Folge.
zurückgeblieben, rückständig, irre, unbestimmte Zeit, unbegrenzt. unified: vereinheitlichte,
verrückt, unterbegabt, label: Etikett, Marke, kennzeichnen, vereinheitlichtet, vereinheitlichten,
schwachsinnig, irrsinnig, blödsinnig, Aufkleber, etikettieren, Kennsatz, vereinheitlicht, vereinheitlichtest,
gestört. Schild, Kennzeichen, Etikette, einheitlich.
correction: Korrektur, Berichtigung, Anhänger, Beschriftung. untrue: falsch, unwahr, grob, untreu,
Korrektion, Verbesserung, mechanics: Mechanik, Maschinenbau, unfreundlich, unhöfflich.
Henry Adams 3
The “Chartres” was finished and privately printed in 1904. The “Education”
proved to be more difficult. The point on which the author failed to please
himself, and could get no light from readers or friends, was the usual one of
literary form. Probably he saw it in advance, for he used to say, half in jest, that
his great ambition was to complete St. Augustine’s “Confessions,” but that St.
Augustine, like a great artist, had worked from multiplicity to unity, while he,
like a small one, had to reverse the method and work back from unity to
multiplicity. The scheme became unmanageable as he approached his end.%
Probably he was, in fact, trying only to work into it his favorite theory of
history, which now fills the last three or four chapters of the “Education,” and he
could not satisfy himself with his workmanship. At all events, he was still
pondering over the problem in 1910, when he tried to deal with it in another way
which might be more intelligible to students. He printed a small volume called
“A Letter to American Teachers,” which he sent to his associates in the American
Historical Association, hoping to provoke some response. Before he could satisfy
himself even on this minor point, a severe illness in the spring of 1912 put an end
to his literary activity forever.
The matter soon passed beyond his control. In 1913 the Institute of Architects
published the “Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres.” Already the “Education” had
become almost as well known as the “Chartres,” and was freely quoted by every
book whose author requested it. The author could no longer withdraw either
volume; he could no longer rewrite either, and he could not publish that which
he thought unprepared and unfinished, although in his opinion the other was
historically purposeless without its sequel. In the end, he preferred to leave the
“Education” unpublished, avowedly incomplete, trusting that it might quietly
fade from memory. According to his theory of history as explained in Chapters
XXXIII and XXXIV, the teacher was at best helpless, and, in the immediate future,
silence next to good-temper was the mark of sense. After midsummer, 1914, the
rule was made absolute.
The Massachusetts Historical Society now publishes the “Education” as it
was printed in 1907, with only such marginal corrections as the author made,

German
according: gemäß, entsprechend, Nachdenken. störrisch, steuerlos, starrsinnig,
übereinstimmend. publishes: veröffentlicht, gibt heraus, schwer handhabbar.
avowedly: eingestandenermaßen. bringt heraus, gibt bekannt, unprepared: unvorbereitet,
corrections: Korrekturen, publiziert. improvisiert.
Verbesserungen. purposeless: zwecklos. unpublished: unveröffentlicht.
favorite: Favorit, Liebling. rewrite: überarbeiten, berichtigen, workmanship: die Bearbeitung,
intelligible: verständlich, begreiflich, nochmals schreiben, revidieren, Mannschaft, Handwerkliche
gemeinverständlich, faßlich, deutlich. überarbeite, überarbeitest, Ausführung, die Qualität, die
jest: scherzen, spaßen. umschreiben, überarbeitet. Qualitätsarbeit, Qualitätsarbeit, die
midsummer: Mittsommer, unmanageable: unhandlich, Mannschaft, die Arbeitsausführung,
Hochsommer. widerspenstig, widersetzlich, die Arbeiterschaft, Ausführung der
pondering: Grübelei, Grübeln, widerborstig, unregierbar, unlenkbar, Arbeit, Arbeitsqualitäts.
4 The Education of Henry Adams
and it does this, not in opposition to the author’s judgment, but only to put both
volumes equally within reach of students who have occasion to consult them.%
HENRY CABOT LODGE
September, 1918

German
consult: konsultieren, konsultiere, opposition: Opposition, Gegensatz,
konsultierst, konsultiert, befragen, Widerstand, Widerspruch,
befrage, befragt, zu Rate ziehen, Gegenseite, Gegenpartei.
befragst, heranziehen, zieht heran. reach: erreichen, reichen, Reichweite,
equally: gleich, ebenso, gleichfalls, erzielen, erlangen, reichen bis,
gleichmäßig, identisch, greifen, langen nach.
gleichermaßen, gleichen, genau, students: Studenten.
gemäß. volumes: Jahrgänge.
judgment: Urteil, Gericht, Spruch,
Entscheidung, Gutachten.
occasion: Anlass, Gelegenheit,
Veranlassung, Ereignis, Mal.
Henry Adams 5

PREFACE

JEAN%JACQUES ROUSSEAU began his famous Confessions by a vehement
appeal to the Deity: “I have shown myself as I was; contemptible and vile when
I was so; good, generous, sublime when I was so; I have unveiled my interior
such as Thou thyself hast seen it, Eternal Father! Collect about me the
innumerable swarm of my fellows; let them hear my confessions; let them
groan at my unworthiness; let them blush at my meannesses! Let each of them
discover his heart in his turn at the foot of thy throne with the same sincerity;
and then let any one of them tell thee if he dares: ‘I was a better man!’ “
Jean Jacques was a very great educator in the manner of the eighteenth
century, and has been commonly thought to have had more influence than any
other teacher of his time; but his peculiar method of improving human nature
has not been universally admired. Most educators of the nineteenth century have
declined to show themselves before their scholars as objects more vile or
contemptible than necessary, and even the humblest teacher hides, if possible,
the faults with which nature has generously embellished us all, as it did Jean
Jacques, thinking, as most religious minds are apt to do, that the Eternal Father
himself may not feel unmixed pleasure at our thrusting under his eyes chiefly
the least agreeable details of his creation.

German
blush: erröten, Schamröte, Röten, groan: stöhnen, ächzen, wimmern, thrusting: Stoßen.
Errötung, Hitzewallung, rot werden. seufzen, wehklagen, jammern, thyself: dich, dich selbst, dir, du
confessions: Bekenntnisse. Ächzer, winseln. selbst, selbst.
contemptible: verachtenswert, hides: versteckt, verheimlicht, unmixed: ungemischt, nicht gemischt,
verächtlich. verhehlt, birgt. unvermischt.
dares: wagt, getraut sich. humblest: demütigst, demütigste. unworthiness: Unwürdigkeit.
educator: Erzieher, Lehrerin, Lehrer, innumerable: unzählig, zahllos. vehement: heftig, sehr,
Erzieherin. sincerity: Aufrichtigkeit, Herzlichkeit, leidenschaftlich.
educators: Erzieher, Ausbilder. Wohlgemeintheit. vile: gemein, landläufig, hinterlistig,
embellished: verschönert, sublime: erhaben, sublim. infam, schuftig, kleinlich, mies,
verschönertest, verschönertet, swarm: Schwarm, schwärmen, niederträchtig, winzig, hinterhältig,
verschönerten, verschönerte. wimmeln, Gewimmel, schwirren. schmählich.