CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
Concord, the Massachusetts town in which Thoreau was born, is to be
distinguished from the newer but larger town of the same name which
became the capital of New Hampshire about the time the first American
Thoreau made his appearance in "old Concord." The latter, the first
inland plantation of the Massachusetts Colony, was bought of the
Indians by Major Willard, a Kentish man, and Rev. Peter Bulkeley, a
Puritan clergyman from the banks of the Ouse in Bedfordshire, and was
settled under their direction in 1635. Mr. Bulkeley, from whom Mr.
Emerson and many of the other Concord citizens of Thoreau's day were
descended, was the first minister of the town, which then included the
present towns of Concord, Acton, Bedford, Carlisle, and Lincoln; and
among his parishioners were the ancestors of the principal families
that now inhabit these towns. Concord itself, the centre of this
large tract, was thought eligible for settlement because of its great
meadows on the Musketaquid or Meadow River. It had been a seat of
the Massachusetts Indians, and a powerful Sachem, Tahattawan, lived
between its two rivers, where the Assabet falls into the slow-gliding
Musketaquid. Thoreau, the best topographer of his birthplace, says:--
"It has been proposed that the town should adopt for its
coat of arms a field verdant, with the Concord circling
nine times round. I have read that a descent of an eighth
of an inch in a mile is sufficient to produce a flow.
Our river has probably very near the smallest allowance.
But wherever it makes a sudden bend it is shallower and
swifter, and asserts its title to be called a river. For
the most part it creeps through broad meadows, adorned with
scattered oaks, where the cranberry is found in abundance,
covering the ground like a mossbed. A row of sunken dwarf
willows borders the stream on one or both sides, while at a
greater distance the meadow is skirted with maples, alders,
and other fluviatile trees, overrun with the grape-vine,
which bears fruit in its season, purple, red, white, and
other grapes."
From these river-grapes, by seedling cultivation, a Concord gardener,
in Thoreau's manhood, bred and developed the Concord grape, which
is now more extensively grown throughout the United States than any
other vine, and once adorned, in vineyards large and small, the
hillsides over which Thoreau rambled. The uplands are sandy in many
places, gravelly and rocky in others, and nearly half the township
is now covered, as it has always been, with woods of oak, pine,
chestnut, and maple. It is a town of husbandmen, chiefly, with a few
mechanics, merchants, and professional men in its villages; a quiet
region, favorable to thought, to rambling, and to leisure, as well as
to that ceaseless industry by which New England lives and thrives.
Its population in 1909 approaches 5,000, but at Thoreau's birth it
did not exceed 2,000. There are few great estates in it, and little
poverty; the mode of life has generally been plain and simple, and
was so in Thoreau's time even more than now. When he was born, and
for some years afterward, there was but one church, and the limits of
the parish and the township were the same. At that time it was one of
the two shire towns of the great county of Middlesex,--Cambridge,
thirteen miles away, being the other. It was therefore a seat of
justice and a local centre of trade,--attracting lawyers and merchants
to its public square much more than of late years.
Trade in Concord then was very different from what it has been since
the railroad began to work its revolutions. In the old days, long
lines of teams from the upper country, New Hampshire and Vermont,
loaded with the farm products of the interior, stopped nightly at
the taverns, especially in the winter, bound for the Boston market,
whence they returned with a cargo for their own country. If a thaw
came on, or there was bad sleighing in Boston, the drivers, anxious
to lighten their loads, would sell and buy in the Concord public
square, to the great profit of the numerous traders, whose little
shops stood around or near it. Then, too, the hitching-posts in front
of the shops had full rows of wagons and chaises from the neighboring
towns fastened there all day long; while the owners looked over goods,
priced, chaffered, and beat down by the hour together the calicoes,
sheetings, shirtings, kerseymeres, and other articles of domestic
need,--bringing in, also, the product of their own farms and looms
to sell or exchange. Each "store" kept an assortment of "West India
goods," dry goods, hardware, medicines, furniture, boots and shoes,
paints, lumber, lime, and the miscellaneous articles of which the
village or the farms might have need; not to mention a special trade
in New England rum and old Jamaica, hogsheads of which were brought
up every week from Boston by teams, and sold or given away by the
glass, with an ungrudging hand. A little earlier than the period now
mentioned, when Colonel Whiting (father of the late eminent lawyer,
Abraham Lincoln's right-hand adviser in the law of emancipation,
William Whiting, of Boston) was a lad in Concord village, "there
were five stores and three taverns in the middle of the town, where
intoxicating liquors were sold by the glass to any and every body; and
it was the custom, when a person bought even so little as fifty cents'
worth of goods, to offer him a glass of liquor, and it was generally
accepted." Such was the town when John Thoreau, the Jerseyman, came
there to die in 1800, and such it remained during the mercantile days
of John Thoreau, his son, who was brought up in a house on the public
square, and learned the business of buying and selling in the store of
Deacon White, close by. Pencil-making, the art by which he earned his
modest livelihood during Henry Thoreau's youth, was introduced into
Concord about 1812 by William Munroe, whose son has in later years
richly endowed the small free library from which Thoreau drew books,
and to which he gave some of his own. In this handicraft, which was
at times quite profitable, the younger Thoreaus assisted their father
from time to time, and Henry acquired great skill in it; even to the
extent, says Mr. Emerson, of making as good a pencil as the best
English ones. "His friends congratulated him that he had now opened
his way to fortune. But he replied that he should never make another
pencil. 'Why should I? I would not do again what I have done once.'"
Thoreau may have said this, but he afterward changed his mind, for he
went on many years, at intervals, working at his father's business,
which in time grew to be mainly the preparation of fine-ground
plumbago for electrotyping. This he supplied to various publishers,
and among others to the Harpers, for several years. But what he did in
this way was incidental, and as an aid to his father, his mother, or
his sister Sophia, who herself carried on the business for some time
after the death of Henry in 1862. It was the family employment, and
must be pursued by somebody.
Perpetuity, indeed, and hereditary transmission of everything that by
nature and good sense can be inherited, are among the characteristics
of Concord. The Heywood family has been resident in Concord for two
hundred and fifty years or so, and in that time has held the office
of town clerk, in lineal succession from father to son, for one
hundred years at least. The grandson of the first John Heywood filled
the office (which is the most responsible in town, and generally
accompanied by other official trusts) for eighteen years, beginning in
1731; his son held the place with a slight interregnum for thirteen
years; his nephew, Dr. Abiel Heywood, was town clerk from 1796 to
1834 without a break, and Dr. Heywood's son, Mr. George Heywood, was
the town clerk for thirty-odd years after March, 1853.
Of the dozen ministers who, since 1635, have preached in the parish
church, five were either Bulkeleys or Emersons, descendants of the
first minister, or else connected by marriage with that clerical line;
and the young minister who, in the year 1882, accepted the pastorate
of Rev. Peter Bulkeley, is a descendant, and bears the same name. Mr.
Emerson himself, the great clerk of Concord, which was his lay parish
for almost half a century after he ceased to preach in its pulpit,
counted among his ancestors four of the Concord pastors, whose united
ministry covered a century; while his grandmother's second husband,
Dr. Ripley, added a half century more to the family ministry. For this
ancestral claim, quite as much as for his gift of wit and eloquence,
Mr. Emerson was chosen, in 1835, to commemorate by an oration the two
hundredth anniversary of the town settlement. In this discourse he
said:--
"I have had much opportunity of access to anecdotes
of families, and I believe this town to have been the
dwelling-place, in all times since its planting, of pious
and excellent persons, who walked meekly through the paths
of common life, who served God and loved man, and never
let go their hope of immortality. I find our annals marked
with a uniform good sense. I find no ridiculous laws,
no eavesdropping legislators, no hanging of witches, no
ghosts, no whipping of Quakers, no unnatural crimes. The
old town clerks did not spell very correctly, but they
contrived to make pretty intelligible the will of a free
and just community."
Into such a community Henry Thoreau, a free and just man, was born.
Dr. Heywood, above-named, was the first town clerk he remembered, and
the one who entered on the records the marriage of his father and
mother, and the birth of all the children. He cried the banns of John
Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar in the parish meeting-house; and he was the
last clerk who made this Sunday outcry.
He thus proclaimed his own autumnal nuptials in 1822, when he
married for the first time at the age of sixty-three. The banns were
cried at the opening of the service, and this compelled the town
clerk to be a more regular attendant in the meeting-house than his
successors have found necessary. Dr. Heywood's pew was about half-way
down the broad aisle, and in full view of the whole congregation,
whether in the "floor pews" or "up in the galleries." Wearing his
old-fashioned coat and small-clothes, the doctor would rise in his
pew, deliberately adjust his spectacles, and look about for a moment,
in order to make sure that his audience was prepared; then he made
his proclamation with much emphasis of voice and dignity of manner.
There was a distinction, however, in the manner of "publishing the
banns" of the white and the black citizens; the former being "cried"
in the face of the whole congregation, and the latter simply "posted"
in the meeting-house porch, as was afterwards the custom for all.
Dr. Heywood, from a sense of justice, or some other proper motive,
determined on one occasion to "post" a white couple, instead of giving
them the full benefit of his sonorous voice; but, either because they
missed the _éclat_ of the usual proclamation, or else felt humiliated
at being "posted like niggers in the porch," they brought the town
clerk to justice forthwith, and he was forced for once to yield to
popular outcry, and join in the outcry himself. After publishing his
own banns, and just before the wedding, he for the first time procured
a pair of trousers,--having worn knee-breeches up to that time, as
Colonel May (the father-in-law of Mr. Alcott) and others had thought
it proper to wear them. When Dr. Heywood told his waggish junior,
'Squire Brooks, of the purchase, and inquired how young gentlemen
put their trousers on, his legal neighbor advised him that they were
generally put on over the head.
Dr. Heywood survived amid "this age loose and all unlaced," as Marvell
says, until 1839, having practiced medicine, more or less, in Concord
for upward of forty years, and held court there as a local justice for
almost as long. Dr. Isaac Hurd, who was his contemporary, practiced
in Concord for fifty-four years, and in all sixty-five years; and Dr.
Josiah Bartlett, who accompanied and succeeded Dr. Hurd, practiced in
Concord nearly fifty-eight years; while the united medical service of
himself and his father, Dr. Josiah Bartlett of Charlestown, was one
hundred and two years.
Dr. Bartlett himself was one of the most familiar figures in Concord
through Thoreau's life-time, and for fifteen years after. To him have
been applied, with more truth, I suspect, than to "Mr. Robert Levet, a
Practiser in Physic," those noble lines of Dr. Johnson on his humble
friend:--
"Well tried through many a varying year,
See Levet to the grave descend,
Officious, innocent, sincere,
_Of every friendless name the friend_."
He said more than once that for fifty years no severity of weather
had kept him from visiting his distant patients,--sometimes miles
away,--except once, and then the snow was piled so high that his
sleigh upset every two rods; and when he unharnessed and mounted his
horse, the beast, floundering through a drift, slipped him off over
his crupper. He was a master of the horse, and encouraged that proud
creature to do his best in speed. One of his neighbors mentioned
in his hearing a former horse of Dr. Bartlett's, which was in the
habit of running away. "By faith!" said the doctor (his familiar
oath), "I recollect that horse; he was a fine traveler, but I have no
remembrance that he ever ran away." When upwards of seventy, he was
looking for a new horse. The jockey said, "Doctor, if you were not so
old, I have a horse that would suit you." "Hm!" growled the doctor,
"don't talk to me about _old_. Let's see your horse;" and he bought
him, and drove him for eight years. He practiced among the poor with
no hope of reward, and gave them, besides, his money, his time, and
his influence. One day a friend saw him receiving loads of firewood
from a shiftless man to whom he had rendered gratuitous service in
sickness for twenty years. "Ah, doctor! you are getting some of your
back pay." "By faith! no; the fellow is poor, so I paid him for his
wood, and let him go."
Dr. Bartlett did not reach Concord quite in season to assist at the
birth of Henry Thoreau; but from the time his parents brought him
back to his native town from Boston, in 1823, to the day of Sophia
Thoreau's death, in 1876, he might have supplied the needed medical
aid to the family, and often did so. The young Henry dwelt in his
first tabernacle on the Virginia road but eight months, removing then
to a house on the Lexington road, not far from where Mr. Emerson
afterwards established his residence, on the edge of Concord village.
In the mean time he had been baptized by Dr. Ripley in the parish
church, at the age of three months; and his mother boasted that he
did not cry. His aunt, Sarah Thoreau, taught him to walk when he was
fourteen months old, and before he was sixteen months he removed to
Chelmsford, "next to the meeting-house, where they kept the powder,
in the garret," as was the custom in many village churches of New
England then. Coming back to Concord before he was six years old,
he soon began to drive his mother's cow to pasture, barefoot, like
other village boys; just as Emerson, when a boy in Boston, a dozen
years before, had driven his mother's cow where now the fine streets
and halls are. Thoreau, like Emerson, began to go to school in
Boston, where he lived for a year or more in Pinckney Street. But he
returned to Concord in 1823, and, except for short visits or long
walking excursions, he never left the town again till he died, in
1862. He there went on with his studies in the village schools, and
fitted for Harvard College at the "Academy," which 'Squire Hoar,
Colonel Whiting, 'Squire Brooks, and other magnates of the town had
established about 1820. This private school was generally very well
taught, and here Thoreau himself taught for a while in after years.
In his boyhood it had become a good place to study Greek, and in
1830, when perhaps Henry Thoreau was one of its pupils, Mr. Charles
Emerson, visiting his friends in Concord, wrote thus of what he saw
there: "Mr. George Bradford and I attended the Exhibition yesterday at
the Academy. We were extremely gratified. To hear little girls saying
their Greek grammar and young ladies read Xenophon was a new and very
agreeable entertainment." Thoreau must have been beginning his Greek
grammar about that time, for he entered college in 1833, and was then
proficient in Greek. He must also have gone, as a boy, to the "Concord
Lyceum," where he afterwards lectured every winter. Concord, as the
home of famous lawyers and active politicians, was always a place of
resort for political leaders, and Thoreau might have seen and heard
there all the celebrated congressmen and governors of Massachusetts,
at one time and another. He could remember the visit of Lafayette to
Concord in 1824, and the semi-centennial celebration of the Concord
Fight in 1825. In 1830 he doubtless looked forward with expectation
for the promised lecture of Edward Everett before the Lyceum,
concerning which Mr. Everett wrote as follows to Dr. Ripley (November
3, 1830):--
"I am positively forbidden by my physician to come to
Concord to-day. To obviate, as far as possible, the
inconvenience which this failure might cause the Lyceum, I
send you the lecture which I should have delivered. It is
one which I have delivered twice before; but my health has
prevented me from preparing another. Although _in print_,
as you see, it has _not been published_. I held it back
from publication to enable me, with propriety, to deliver
it at Concord. Should you think it worth while to have
it read to the meeting, it is at your service for that
purpose; and, should this be done, I would suggest, as it
is one hour and three quarters long, that some parts should
be omitted. For this reason I have inclosed some passages
in brackets, which can be spared without affecting the
context."
It would hardly occur to a popular lecturer now to apologize because
he had delivered his lecture twice before, or to send the copy
forward, when he could not himself be there to read it.
Mr. Emerson began to lecture in the Concord Lyceum before 1834, when
he came to reside in the town. In October of that year he wrote to
Dr. Ripley, declining to give the opening lecture, but offering to
speak in the course of the winter, as he did. During its first half
century he lectured nearly a hundred times in this Lyceum, reading
there, first and last, nearly all the essays he published in his
lifetime, and many that have since been printed. Thoreau gave his
first lecture there in April, 1838, and afterwards lectured nearly
every year for more than twenty years. On one occasion, very early in
his public career, when the expected lecturer of the Lyceum failed to
come, as Mr. Everett had failed, but had not been thoughtful enough
to send a substitute, Henry Thoreau and Mr. Alcott were pressed into
the service, and spoke before the audience in duet, and with opinions
extremely heretical,--both being ardent radicals and "come-outers."
A few years after this (in 1843), Wendell Phillips made his first
appearance before the Concord Lyceum, and spoke in a manner which
Thoreau has described in print, and which led to a sharp village
controversy, not yet quite forgotten on either side.
But to return to the childhood and youth of Thoreau. When he was three
or four years old, at Chelmsford, on being told that he must die,
as well as the men in the New England Primer, and having the joys
of heaven explained to him, he said, as he came in from "coasting,"
that he did not want to die and go to heaven, because he could not
carry his sled to so fine a place; for, he added, "the boys say it is
not shod with iron, and not worth a cent." At the age of ten, says
Channing, "he had the firmness of the Indian, and could repress his
pathos, and had such seriousness that he was called 'judge.'" As an
example of childish fortitude, it is related that he carried his pet
chickens for sale to the tavern-keeper in a basket; whereupon Mr.
Wesson told him to 'stop a minute,' and, in order to return the basket
promptly, took the darlings out, and wrung their necks, one by one,
before the boy's eyes, who wept inwardly, but did not budge. Having a
knack at whittling, and being asked by a schoolmate to make him a bow
and arrow, young Henry refused, not deigning to give the reason,--that
he had no knife. "So through life," says Channing, "he steadily
declined trying or pretending to do what he had no means to execute,
yet forbore explanations." He was a sturdy and kindly playmate, whose
mirthful tricks are yet remembered by those who frolicked with him,
and he always abounded with domestic affection. While in college he
once asked his mother what profession she would have him choose. She
said, pleasantly, "You can buckle on your knapsack, dear, and roam
abroad to seek your fortune;" but the thought of leaving home and
forsaking Concord made the tears roll down his cheeks. Then his
sister Helen, who was standing by, says Channing, "tenderly put her
arm around him and kissed him, saying, 'No, Henry, you shall not go;
you shall stay at home and live with us.'" And this, indeed, he did,
though he made one or two efforts to seek his fortune for a time
elsewhere.
His reading had been wide and constant while at school, and after
he entered college at the age of sixteen. His room in Cambridge was
in Hollis Hall; his instructors were such as he found there, but
in rhetoric he profited much by the keen intelligence of Professor
Channing, an uncle of his future friend and biographer, Ellery
Channing. I think he also came in contact, while in college, with
that singular poet, Jones Very, of Salem. He was by no means unsocial
in college, though he did not form such abiding friendships as do
many young men. He graduated in 1837. His expenses at Cambridge,
which were very moderate, compared with what a poor scholar must now
pay to go through college, were paid in part by his father, in part
by his aunts and his elder sister, Helen, who had already begun to
teach school; and for the rest he depended on his own efforts and the
beneficiary funds of the college, in which he had some little share.
I have understood that he received the income of the same modest
endowment which had been given to William and Ralph Waldo Emerson
when in college, some years before; and in other ways the generous
thought of that most princely man, Waldo Emerson, was not idle in
his behalf, though he knew Thoreau then only as the studious son of
a townsman, who needed a friend at court. What Mr. Emerson wrote to
Josiah Quincy, who was then president of Harvard College, in behalf of
Henry Thoreau does not appear, except from the terms of old Quincy's
reply; but we may infer it. Thoreau had the resource of school-keeping
in the country towns, during the college vacation and the extra
vacation that a poor scholar could claim; and this brought him, in
1835, to an acquaintance with that elder scholar, Brownson, who
afterwards became a Catholic doctor of theology. He left college one
winter to teach school at Canton, near Boston, where he was examined
by Rev. Orestes A. Brownson, then a Protestant minister in Canton.
He studied German and boarded with Mr. Brownson while he taught the
school. In 1836, he records in his journal that he "went to New York
with father, peddling." In his senior year, 1836-37, he was ill for
a time, and lost rank with his instructors by his indifference to
the ordinary college motives for study. This fact, and also that he
was a beneficiary of the college, further appears from the letter of
President Quincy to Mr. Emerson, as follows:--
"CAMBRIDGE, _25th June, 1837_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--Your view concerning Thoreau is entirely in
consent with that which I entertain. His general conduct
has been very satisfactory, and I was willing and desirous
that whatever falling off there had been in his scholarship
should be attributable to his sickness. He had, however,
imbibed some notions concerning emulation and college
rank which had a natural tendency to diminish his zeal,
if not his exertions. His instructors were impressed with
the conviction that he was indifferent, even to a degree
that was faulty, and that they could not recommend him,
consistent with the rule by which they are usually governed
in relation to beneficiaries. I have always entertained
a respect for and interest in him, and was willing to
attribute any apparent neglect or indifference to his ill
health rather than to wilfulness. I obtained from the
instructors the authority to state all the facts to the
Corporation, and submit the result to their discretion.
This I did, and that body granted _twenty-five dollars_,
which was within _ten_, or at most _fifteen_, dollars of
any sum he would have received, had no objection been made.
There is no doubt that, from some cause, an unfavorable
opinion has been entertained, since his return after his
sickness, of his disposition to exert himself. To what it
has been owing may be doubtful. I appreciate very fully
the goodness of his heart and the strictness of his moral
principle; and have done as much for him as, under the
circumstances, was possible.
"Very respectfully, your humble servant,
"JOSIAH QUINCY.
"Rev. R. W. EMERSON."
It is possible the college faculty may have had other grounds of
distrust in Thoreau's case. On May 30, 1836, his classmate Peabody
wrote him the following letter from Cambridge,--Thoreau being then at
home, for some reason,--from which we may infer that the sober youth
was not averse to such deeds as are there related:--
"The Davy Club got into a little trouble, the week before
last, from the following circumstance: H. W. gave a
lecture on Pyrotechny, and illustrated it with a parcel
of fireworks he had prepared in the vacation. As you may
imagine, there was some slight noise on the occasion. In
fact, the noise was so slight that Tutor B. heard it at his
room in Holworthy. This worthy boldly determined to march
forth and attack the 'rioters.' Accordingly, in the midst
of a grand display of rockets, etc., he stepped into the
room, and, having gazed round him in silent astonishment
for the space of two minutes, and hearing various cries of
'Intrusion!' 'Throw him over!' 'Saw his leg off!' 'Pull
his wool!' etc., he made two or three dignified motions
with his hand to gain attention, and then kindly advised
us to 'retire to our respective rooms.' Strange to say, he
found no one inclined to follow this good advice, and _he_
accordingly thought fit to withdraw. There is, as perhaps
you know, a law against keeping powder in the college
buildings. The effect of Tutor B.'s intrusion was evident
on the next Monday night, when H. W. and B. were invited
to call and see President Quincy; and owing to the tough
reasoning of Tutor B., who boldly asserted that 'powder was
powder,' they were each presented with a public admonition.
"We had a miniature volcano at Webster's lecture, the other
morning [this was Professor Webster, afterwards hanged
for the murder of Dr. Parkman], and the odors therefrom
surpassed all ever produced by Araby the Blest. Imagine to
yourself all the windows and shutters of the lecture-room
closed, and then conceive the delightful scent produced by
the burning of nearly a bushel of sulphur, phosphoretted
hydrogen, and other still more pleasant ingredients. As
soon as the burning commenced, there was a general rush
to the door, and a crowd collected there, running out
every half minute to get a breath of fresh air, and then
coming in to see the volcano. 'No noise nor nothing.'
Bigelow and Dr. Bacon manufactured some 'laughing gas,' and
administered it on the Delta. It was much better than that
made by Webster. Jack Weiss took some, as usual; Wheeler,
Jo Allen, and Hildreth each received a dose. Wheeler
proceeded to dance for the amusement of the company, Jo
jumped over the Delta fence, and Sam raved about Milton,
Shakespeare, Byron, etc. He took two doses; it produced a
great effect on him. He seemed to be as happy as a mortal
could desire; talked with Shakespeare, Milton, etc., and
seemed to be quite at home with them."
The persons named were classmates of Thoreau: one of them afterward
Rev. John Weiss; Wheeler was of Lincoln, and died early in Germany,
whither he went to study; Samuel Tenney Hildreth was a brother of
Richard Hildreth, the historian, and also died young. The zest with
which his classmate related these pranks to Thoreau seems to imply in
his correspondent a mind too ready towards such things to please the
learned faculty of Cambridge.
Mr. Quincy's letter was in reply to one which Mr. Emerson had written
at the request of Mrs. Thoreau, who feared her son was not receiving
justice from the college authorities. Thoreau graduated without much
distinction, but with a good name among his classmates, and a high
reputation for general scholarship. When he went to Maine, in May,
1838, to see if there was not some school for him to teach there, he
took with him this certificate from his pastor, Dr. Ripley:--
"CONCORD, _May 1, 1838_.
"TO THE FRIENDS OF EDUCATION,--The undersigned very
cheerfully hereby introduces to public notice the
bearer, Mr. David Henry Thoreau, as a teacher in the
higher branches of useful literature. He is a native of
this town, and a graduate of Harvard University. He is
well disposed and well qualified to instruct the rising
generation. His scholarship and moral character will bear
the strictest scrutiny. He is modest and mild in his
disposition and government, but not wanting in energy of
character and fidelity in the duties of his profession.
It is presumed his character and usefulness will be
appreciated more highly as an acquaintance with him shall
be cultivated. Cordial wishes for his success, reputation,
and usefulness attend him, as an instructor and gentleman.
"EZRA RIPLEY,
"_Senior Pastor of the First
Church in Concord, Mass._
"N. B.--_It is but justice to observe here that the
eyesight of the writer is much impaired._"
Accompanying this artless document is a list of clergymen in the towns
of Maine,--Portland, Belfast, Camden, Kennebunk, Castine, Ellsworth,
etc.,--in the handwriting of the good old pastor, signifying that as
young Thoreau traveled he should report himself to these brethren,
who might forward his wishes. But even at that early date, I suspect
that Thoreau undervalued the "D. D.'s" in comparison with the
"chickadedees," as he plainly declared in his later years. Another
certificate, in a firmer hand, and showing no token of impaired
eyesight, was also carried by Thoreau in this first visit to Maine. It
was this:--
"I cordially recommend Mr. Henry D. Thoreau, a graduate
of Harvard University in August, 1837, to the confidence
of such parents or guardians as may propose to employ him
as an instructor. I have the highest confidence in Mr.
Thoreau's moral character, and in his intellectual ability.
He is an excellent scholar, a man of energy and kindness,
and I shall esteem the town fortunate that secures his
services.
"R. WALDO EMERSON.
"CONCORD, _May 2, 1838_."
The acquaintance of Mr. Emerson with his young townsman had begun
perhaps a year before this date, and had advanced very fast toward
intimacy. It originated in this way: A lady connected with Mr.
Emerson's family was visiting at Mrs. Thoreau's while Henry was in
college, and the conversation turned on a lecture lately read in
Concord by Mr. Emerson. Miss Helen Thoreau surprised the visitor by
saying, "My brother Henry has a passage in his diary containing the
same things that Mr. Emerson has said." This remark being questioned,
the diary was produced, and, sure enough, the thought of the two
passages was found to be very similar. The incident being reported to
Mr. Emerson, he desired the lady to bring Henry Thoreau to see him,
which was soon done, and the intimacy began. It was to this same lady
(Mrs. Brown, of Plymouth) that Thoreau addressed one of his earliest
poems,--the verses called "Sic Vita," in the "Week on the Concord and
Merrimac," commencing:--
"I am a parcel of vain strivings, tied
By a chance bond together."
These verses were written on a strip of paper inclosing a bunch of
violets, gathered in May, 1837, and thrown in at Mrs. Brown's window
by the poet-naturalist. They show that he had read George Herbert
carefully, at a time when few persons did so, and in other ways they
are characteristic of the writer, who was then not quite twenty years
old.
It may be interesting to see what old Quincy himself said, in a
certificate, about his stubbornly independent pupil. For the same
Maine journey Cambridge furnished the Concord scholar with this
document:--
"HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE,
_March 26, 1838_.
"TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,--I certify that Henry D. Thoreau,
of Concord, in this State of Massachusetts, graduated at
this seminary in August, 1837; that his rank was high as
a scholar in all the branches, and his morals and general
conduct unexceptionable and exemplary. He is recommended
as well qualified as an instructor, for employment in any
public or private school or private family.
"JOSIAH QUINCY,
"_President of Harvard University_."
It seems that there was question, at this time, of a school in
Alexandria, near Washington (perhaps the Theological Seminary for
Episcopalians there), in which young Thoreau might find a place; for
on the 12th of April, 1838, President Quincy wrote to him as follows:--
"SIR,--The school is at Alexandria; the students are said
to be young men well advanced in ye knowledge of ye Latin
and Greek classics; the requisitions are, qualification
and _a person who has had experience in school keeping_.
Salary $600 a year, besides washing and Board; duties to
be entered on ye 5th or 6th of May. If you choose to apply,
I will write as soon as I am informed of it. State to me
your experience in school keeping. Yours,
"JOSIAH QUINCY."
We now know that Thoreau offered himself for the place; and we know
that his journey to Maine was fruitless. He did, in fact, teach the
town grammar school in Concord for a few weeks in 1837, and in July,
1838, was teaching, at the Parkman house, in Concord. He had already,
as we have seen, though not yet twenty-one, appeared as a lecturer
before the Concord Lyceum. It is therefore time to consider him as a
citizen of Concord, and to exhibit further the character of that town.
* * * * *
_Note._--The Tutor mentioned on page 55 was Francis
Bowen, afterward professor at Harvard; the other "B." was
H. J. Bigelow, afterward a noted surgeon in Boston.