[Footnote 462: A man's biography, etc. Emerson wrote in his journal:
"Long ago I wrote of _gifts_ and neglected a capital example. John
Thoreau, Jr. [who, like his brother Henry, was a lover of nature] one
day put a bluebird's box on my barn,--fifteen years ago it must
be,--and there it still is, with every summer a melodious family in it
adorning the place and singing its praises. There's a gift for you
which cost the giver no money, but nothing which he bought could have
been as good."]

[Footnote 463: Sin offering. Under the Hebrew law, a sacrifice or
offering for sin. See Leviticus xxiii. 19. Explain what Emerson means
here by the word.]

[Footnote 464: Blackmail. What is "blackmail"? How may Christmas
gifts, for instance, become a species of blackmail?]

[Footnote 465: Brother, if Jove, etc. In the Greek legend, Epimetheus
gives this advice to his brother Prometheus. The lines are taken from
a translation of _Works and Days_, by the Greek poet, Hesiod.]

[Footnote 466: Timons. Here used in the sense of wealthy givers.
Timon, the hero of Shakespeare's play, _Timon of Athens_, wasted his
fortune in lavish gifts and entertainments, and in his poverty was
exposed to the ingratitude of those whom he had served. He became
morose and died in miserable retirement.]

[Footnote 467: It is a very onerous business, etc. One of Emerson's
favorite passages in the essays of Montaigne, a French writer, was
this: "Oh, how am I obliged to Almighty God, who has been pleased that
I should immediately receive all I have from his bounty, and