Emerson writes, "Our reading is mendicant." Mendicant is an adjective used to describe someone who on begging for a living.
Penance is a voluntary self punishment to make up for a wrong-going. Emerson wrote, "Their virtues are penances".
Emerson writes, "more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages." Lustre is a shine or glimmer.
Render is to provide or cause something to happen. Emerson wrote, "our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment".
Latent is something stored, but not active. Emerson wrote, "Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense".
The text says, "Our reading is mendicant and sycophantic." A sycophantic is when someone is attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery.
Similar to admonish upbraid is when someone scolds you sharply. The quote from the essay is, "Consider whether you have satisfied your relations to father, mother, cousin, neighbour, town, cat, and dog; whether any of these can upbraid you".
Kindred is when you are family with someone, but it can also be when you feel close to someone.
