Why did Emerson choose 'hobgoblin' in his quote 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds'?

Question

Source: Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive (2009). p. 80.

According to Oscar Wilde, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” A similarly disdainful Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” And finally, Aldous Huxley noted, “The only truly consistent people are dead.” Why is it more likely that these famous authors made these statements when they were young whippersnappers rather than when they were elderly sages, and what could this mean for your attempts to influence others?

I understand the quote. But Wikipedia doesn't explain the origin of the following signification? It differs from the original that portrays hobgoblins as guileful. Was there some semantic shift?

The term "hobgoblin" is used sometimes to mean a superficial object that is a source of (often imagined) fear or trouble.

Answer 1

Sense 2 of "Hobgoblin" in my OED is

fig. An object which inspires superstitious dread or apprehension; a bogy, bugbear.

It gives citations dating from 1709 to 1841-2, the latter being the very Emerson quotation you ask about. Emerson (then aged in his late 30's, so hardly a whippersnapper) apparently used the word correctly in a way it had been used for more than a century.