LIFE, DEATH, AND IMMORTALITY.
The life of Thoreau naturally divides itself into three parts: his
Apprenticeship, from birth to the summer of 1837, when he left Harvard
College; his Journey-work (Wanderjahre) from 1837 to 1849, when he
appeared as an author, with his first book; and his Mastership,--not
of a college, a merchantman, or a mechanic art, but of the trade and
mystery of writing. He had aspired to live and study and practice, so
that he could write--to use his own words--"sentences which suggest
far more than they say, which have an atmosphere about them, which do
not report an old, but make a new impression." To frame such sentences
as these, he said, "as durable as a Roman aqueduct," was the art of
writing coveted by him; "sentences which are expressive, towards which
so many volumes, so much life went; which lie like boulders on the
page, up and down or across,--not mere repetition, but creation, and
which a man might sell his ground or cattle to build." It was this
thirst for final and concentrated expression, and not love of fame,
or "literary aspirations," as poor Greeley put it, which urged him
on to write. For printing he cared little,--and few authors since
Shakespeare have been less anxious to publish what they wrote. Of the
seven volumes of his works first printed, and twenty more which may
be published some day, only two, "The Week" and "Walden," appeared in
his lifetime,--though the material for two more had been scattered
about in forgotten magazines and newspapers, for his friends to
collect after his death. Of his first works (and some of his best) it
could be said, as Thomas Wharton said, in 1781, of his friend Gray's
verses, "I yet reflect with pain upon the cool reception which those
noble odes, 'The Progress of Poetry' and 'The Bard' met with at their
first publication; it appeared there were not twenty people in England
who liked them." This disturbed Thoreau's friends, but not himself;
he rather rejoiced in the slow sale of his first book; and when the
balance of the edition,--more than seven hundred copies out of one
thousand,--came back upon his hands unsold in 1855, and earlier,
he told me with glee that he had made an addition of seven hundred
volumes to his library, and all of his own composition. "O solitude,
obscurity, meanness!" he exclaims in 1856 to his friend Blake, "I
never triumph so as when I have the least success in my neighbors'
eyes." Of course, pride had something to do with this; "it was a wild
stock of pride," as Burke said of Lord Keppel, "on which the tenderest
of all hearts had grafted the milder virtues." Both pride and piety
led him to write,--
"Fame cannot tempt the bard
Who's famous with his God,
Nor laurel him reward
Who has his Maker's nod."
Though often ranked as an unbeliever, and too scornful in some of his
expressions concerning the religion of other men, Thoreau was in truth
deeply religious. Sincerity and devotion were his most marked traits;
and both are seen in his verses from the same poem ("Inspiration") so
often quoted:--
"I will then trust the love untold
Which not my worth or want hath bought,--
Which wooed me young and wooes me old,
And to this evening hath me brought."
Thoreau's business in life was observation, thought, and writing,
to which last, reading was essential. He read much, but studied
more; nor was his reading that indiscriminate, miscellaneous perusal
of everything printed, which has become the vice of this age. He
read books of travel, scientific books, authors of original merit,
but few newspapers, of which he had a very poor opinion. "Read not
the 'Times,' read the Eternities," he said. Nor did he admire the
magazines, or their editors, greatly. He quarreled with "Putnam's
Magazine," in 1853-54, and in 1858, after yielding to the suggestion
of Mr. Emerson, that he should contribute to the "Atlantic," in
consequence of a dispute with Mr. Lowell, its editor, about the
omission of a sentence in one of his articles, he published no more
in that magazine until the year of his death (1862), when Mr. Fields
obtained from him some of his choicest manuscripts. He spent the
last months of his life in revising these, and they continued to
appear for some years after his death. Those which were published in
the "Atlantic" in 1878 are passages from his journals, selected by
his friend Blake, who long had the custody of his manuscripts. These
consist chiefly of his journals in thirty-nine volumes, many parts
of which had already been printed, either by Thoreau himself, by his
sister Sophia, or his friend Channing, who, in 1873, published a
life of Thoreau, containing many extracts from the journals, which
had never before been printed. When we speak of his works, we should
include Mr. Channing's book also, half of which, at least, is from
Thoreau's pen.
His method in writing was peculiarly his own, though it bore some
external resemblance to that of his friends, Emerson and Alcott.
Like them he early began to keep a journal, which became both diary
and commonplace book. But while they noted down the thoughts which
occurred to them, without premeditation or consecutive arrangement,
Thoreau made studies and observations for his journal as carefully
and habitually as he noted the angles and distances in surveying a
Concord farm. In all his daily walks and distant journeys, he took
notes on the spot of what occurred to him, and these, often very brief
and symbolic, he carefully wrote out, as soon as he could get time,
in his diary, not classified by topics, but just as they had come to
him. To these he added his daily meditations, sometimes expressed in
verse, especially in the years between 1837 and 1850, but generally
in close and pertinent prose. Many details are found in his diaries,
but not such as are common in the diaries of other men,--not trivial
but significant details. From these daily entries he made up his
essays, his lectures, and his volumes; all being slowly, and with much
deliberation and revision, brought into the form in which he gave
them to the public. After that he scarcely changed them at all; they
had received the last imprint of his mind, and he allowed them to
stand and speak for themselves. But before printing, they underwent
constant change, by addition, erasure, transposition, correction, and
combination. A given lecture might be two years, or twenty years in
preparation; or it might be, like his defense of John Brown, copied
with little change from the pages of his diary for the fortnight
previous. But that was an exceptional case; and Thoreau was stirred
and quickened by the campaign and capture of Brown, as perhaps he had
never been before.
"The thought of that man's position and fate," he said,
"is spoiling many a man's day here at the North for other
thinking. If any one who has seen John Brown in Concord,
can pursue successfully any other train of thought, I do
not know what he is made of. If there is any such who gets
his usual allowance of sleep, I will warrant him to fatten
easily under any circumstances which do not touch his body
or purse. I put a piece of paper and a pencil under my
pillow, and when I could not sleep, I wrote in the dark.
I was so absorbed in him as to be surprised whenever I
detected the routine of the natural world surviving still,
or met persons going about their affairs indifferent."
The fact that Thoreau noted down his thoughts by night as well as by
day, appears also from an entry in one of his journals, where he is
describing the coming on of day, as witnessed by him at the close of a
September night in Concord. "Some bird flies over," he writes, "making
a noise like the barking of a puppy (it was a cuckoo). It is yet so
dark that I have dropped my pencil and cannot find it." No writer of
modern times, in fact, was so much awake and abroad at night, or has
described better the phenomena of darkness and of moonlight.
It is interesting to note some dates and incidents concerning a few
of Thoreau's essays. The celebrated chapter on "Friendship," in the
"Week," was written in the winter of 1847-48, soon after he left
Walden, and while he was a member of Mr. Emerson's household during
the absence of his friend in Europe. On the 13th of January, 1848, Mr.
Alcott notes in his diary:--
"Henry Thoreau came in after my hours with the children,
and we had a good deal of talk on the modes of popular
influence. He read me a manuscript essay of his on
'Friendship,' which he has just written, and which I
thought superior to anything I had heard."
To the same period or a little later belong those verses called "The
Departure," which declare, under a similitude, Thoreau's relations
with one family of his friends.
In 1843, when he first met Henry James, Lucretia Mott, and others who
have since been famous, in the pleasant seclusion of Staten Island,
he wrote a translation of the "Seven Against Thebes," which has never
been printed, some translations from Pindar, printed in the "Dial," in
1844, and two articles for the New York "Democratic Review," called
"Paradise to be Regained," and "The Landlord."
Thoreau left "a vast amount of manuscript," in the words of his
sister, who was his literary executor until her death in 1876, when
she committed her trust to his Worcester friend, Mr. Harrison Blake.
She was aided in the revision and publication of the "Excursions,"
"Maine Woods," "Letters," and other volumes which she issued from 1862
to 1866, by Mr. Emerson, Mr. Channing, and other friends,--Mr. Emerson
having undertaken that selection of letters and poems from his mass of
correspondence and his preserved verses, which appeared in 1865. His
purpose, as he said to Miss Thoreau, was to exhibit in that volume "a
most perfect piece of stoicism," and he fancied that she had "marred
his classic statue" by inserting some tokens of natural affection
which the domestic letters showed. Miss Thoreau said that "it did not
seem quite honest to Henry" to leave out such passages; Mr. Fields,
the publisher, agreed with her, and a few of them were retained.
His correspondence, as a whole, is much more affectionate, and less
pugnacious than would appear from the published volume. He was fond of
dispute, but those who knew him best loved him most.
Of his last illness his sister said:--
"It was not possible to be sad in his presence. No shadow
of gloom attaches to anything in my mind connected with my
precious brother. He has done much to strengthen the faith
of his friends. Henry's whole life impresses me as a grand
miracle."
Walking once with Mr. Alcott, soon after he passed his eightieth
birth day, as we faced the lovely western sky in December, the old
Pythagorean said, "I always think of Thoreau when I look at a sunset;"
and I then remembered it was at that hour Thoreau usually walked
along the village street, under the arch of trees, with the sunset
sky seen through their branches. "He said to me in his last illness,"
added Alcott, "'I shall leave the world without a regret,'--that was
the saying either of a grand egotist or of a deeply religious soul."
Thoreau was both, and both his egotism and his devotion offended many
of those who met him. His aversion to the companionship of men was
partly religious--a fondness for the inward life--and partly egotism
and scorn for frivolity.
"Emerson says his life is so unprofitable and shabby for
the most part," writes Thoreau in 1854, "that he is driven
to all sorts of resources,--and among the rest to men. I
tell him we differ only in our resources: mine is to get
away from men. They very rarely affect me as grand or
beautiful; but I know that there is a sunrise and a sunset
every day. I have seen more men than usual lately; and well
as I was acquainted with one, I am surprised to find what
vulgar fellows they are."
In 1859 he wrote to Mr. Blake:--
"I have lately got back to that glorious society called
Solitude, where we meet our friends continually, and can
imagine the outside world also to be peopled. Yet some of
my acquaintance would fain hustle me into the almshouse
for _the sake of society_; as if I were pining for that
diet, when I seem to myself a most befriended man, and find
constant employment. However, they do not believe a word I
say. They have got a club, the handle of which is in the
Parker House, at Boston, and with this they beat me from
time to time, expecting to make me tender, or minced meat,
and so fit for a club to dine off. The doctors are all
agreed that I am suffering for want of society. Was never a
case like it! First, I did not know that I was suffering at
all. Secondly, as an Irishman might say, I had thought it
was indigestion of the society I got."
Yet Thoreau knew the value of society, and avoided it oftentimes only
because he was too busy. To his friend Ricketson, who reproached him
for ceasing to answer letters, he wrote in November, 1860, just before
he took the fatal cold that terminated in consumption and ended his
life prematurely:--
"FRIEND RICKETSON,--You know that I never promised to
correspond with you, and so, when I do, I do more than
I promised. Such are my pursuits and habits, that I
rarely go abroad; and it is quite a habit with me to
decline invitations to do so. Not that I could not enjoy
such visits, if I were not otherwise occupied. I have
enjoyed very much my visits to you, and my rides in your
neighborhood, and am sorry that I cannot enjoy such things
oftener; but life is short, and there are other things also
to be done. I admit that you are more social than I am,
and more attentive to 'the common courtesies of life;' but
this is partly for the reason that you have fewer or less
exacting private pursuits. Not to have written a note for
a year is with me a very venial offense. I think I do not
correspond with any one so often as once in six months.
I have a faint recollection of your invitation referred
to; but I suppose I had no new or particular reason for
declining, and so made no new statement. I have felt that
you would be glad to see me almost whenever I got ready
to come; but I only offer myself as a rare visitor, and
a still rarer correspondent. I am very busy, after my
fashion, little as there is to show for it, and feel as if
I could not spend many days nor dollars in traveling; for
the shortest visit must have a fair margin to it, and the
days thus affect the weeks, you know.
"Nevertheless, we cannot forego these luxuries altogether.
Please remember me to your family. I have a very pleasant
recollection of your fireside, and I trust that I shall
revisit it; also of your shanty and the surrounding
regions."
He did make a last visit to this friend in August, 1861, after his
return from Minnesota, whither he went with young Horace Mann, in
June. And it was to Mr. Ricketson that Sophia Thoreau, two weeks after
her brother's death, wrote the following account of his last illness:--
"CONCORD, _May 20, 1862_.
"DEAR FRIEND,--Profound joy mingles with my grief. I feel
as if something very beautiful had happened,--not death.
Although Henry is with us no longer, yet the memory of his
sweet and virtuous soul must ever cheer and comfort me. My
heart is filled with praise to God for the gift of such a
brother, and may I never distrust the love and wisdom of
Him who made him, and who has now called him to labor in
more glorious fields than earth affords!
"You ask for some particulars relating to Henry's illness.
I feel like saying that Henry was never affected, never
reached by it. I never before saw such a manifestation of
the power of spirit over matter. Very often I have heard
him tell his visitors that he enjoyed existence as well as
ever. He remarked to me that there was as much comfort
in perfect disease as in perfect health, the mind always
conforming to the condition of the body. The thought
of death, he said, could not begin to trouble him. His
thoughts had entertained him all his life, and did still.
When he had wakeful nights, he would ask me to arrange the
furniture, so as to make fantastic shadows on the wall,
and he wished his bed was in the form of a shell that he
might curl up in it. He considered occupation as necessary
for the sick as for those in health, and has accomplished
a vast amount of labor during the past few months, in
preparing some papers for the press. He did not cease to
call for his manuscript till the last day of his life.
During his long illness I never heard a murmur escape
him, or the slightest wish expressed to remain with us.
His perfect contentment was truly wonderful. None of his
friends seemed to realize how very ill he was, so full of
life and good cheer did he seem. One friend, as if by way
of consolation, said to him, 'Well, Mr. Thoreau, we must
all go.' Henry replied, 'When I was a very little boy,
I learned that I must die, and I set that down, so, of
course, I am not disappointed now. Death is as near to you
as it is to me.'
"There is very much that I should like to write you about
my precious brother had I time and strength. I wish you
to know how very gentle, lovely, and submissive he was in
all his ways. His little study bed was brought down into
our front parlor, when he could no longer walk with our
assistance, and every arrangement pleased him. The devotion
of his friends was most rare and touching. His room was
made fragrant by the gifts of flowers from young and old.
Fruit of every kind which the season afforded, and game of
all sorts, were sent him. It was really pathetic, the way
in which the town was moved to minister to his comfort.
Total strangers sent grateful messages, remembering the
good he had done them. All this attention was fully
appreciated and very gratifying to Henry. He would
sometimes say, 'I should be ashamed to stay in this world
after so much has been done for me. I could never repay
my friends.' And they remembered him to the last. Only
about two hours before he left us, Judge Hoar called with
a bouquet of hyacinths fresh from his garden, which Henry
smelt and said he liked, and a few minutes after he was
gone another friend came with a dish of his favorite jelly.
I can never be grateful enough for the gentle, easy exit
which was granted him. At seven o'clock, Tuesday morning,
he became restless, and desired to be moved. Dear Mother,
aunt Louisa, and myself were with him. His self-possession
did not forsake him. A little after eight he asked to be
raised quite up. His breathing grew fainter and fainter,
and without the slightest struggle, he left us at nine
o'clock,--but not alone; our Heavenly Father was with us.
"Your last letter reached us by the evening mail on Monday.
Henry asked me to read it to him, which I did. He enjoyed
your letters, and felt disappointed not to see you again.
Mr. Blake and Mr. Brown came twice to visit him, since
January. They were present at his funeral, which took
place in the church. Mr. Emerson read such an address as
no other man could have done. It is a source of great
satisfaction that one so gifted knew and loved my brother,
and is prepared to speak such brave words about him at this
time. The 'Atlantic Monthly' for July will contain Mr.
Emerson's memories of Henry. I hope that you saw a notice
of the services on Friday, written by Mr. Fields, in the
'Transcript.'
"Let me thank you for your very friendly letters. I trust
we shall see you in Concord, Anniversary Week. It would
give me pleasure to make the acquaintance of your family,
of whom my brother has so often told me. If convenient,
will you please bring the ambrotype of Henry which was
taken last autumn in New Bedford. I am interested to see
it. Mr. Channing will take the crayon likeness to Boston
this week to secure some photographs. My intention was to
apologize for not writing you at this time; but I must
now trust to your generosity to pardon this hasty letter,
written under a great pressure of cares and amidst frequent
interruptions. My mother unites with me in very kind
regards to your family.
"Yours truly,
"S. E. THOREAU."
To Parker Pillsbury, who would fain talk with Thoreau in this last
winter concerning the next world, the reply was, "One world at a
time." To a young friend (Myron Benton) he wrote a few weeks before
death:--
"CONCORD, _March 21, 1862_.
"DEAR SIR,--I thank you for your very kind letter, which,
ever since I received it, I have intended to answer before
I died, however briefly. I am encouraged to know, that, so
far as you are concerned, I have not written my books in
vain. I was particularly gratified, some years ago, when
one of my friends and neighbors said, 'I wish you would
write another book--write it for me.' He is actually more
familiar with what I have written than I am myself. I am
pleased when you say that in 'The Week' you like especially
'those little snatches of poetry interspersed through the
book;' for these, I suppose, are the least attractive to
most readers. I have not been engaged in any particular
work on Botany, or the like, though, if I were to live, I
should have much to report on Natural History generally.
"You ask particularly after my health. I _suppose_ that
I have not many months to live; but, of course, I know
nothing about it. I may add, that I am enjoying existence
as much as ever, and regret nothing.
"Yours truly, HENRY D. THOREAU,
"By SOPHIA E. THOREAU."
"With an unfaltering trust in God's mercies," wrote Ellery
Channing, "and never deserted by his good genius, he most bravely
and unsparingly passed down the inclined plane of a terrible
malady--pulmonary consumption; working steadily at the completing
of his papers to his last hours, or so long as he could hold the
pencil in his trembling fingers. Yet if he did get a little sleep to
comfort him in this year's campaign of sleepless affliction, he was
sure to interest those about him in his singular dreams, more than
usually fantastic. He said once, that having got a few moments of
repose, 'sleep seemed to hang round his bed in festoons.' He declared
uniformly that he preferred to endure with a clear mind the worst
penalties of suffering rather than be plunged in a turbid dream by
narcotics. His patience was unfailing; assuredly he knew not aught
save resignation; he did mightily cheer and console those whose
strength was less. His every instant now, his least thought and work,
sacredly belonged to them, dearer than his rapidly perishing life,
whom he should so quickly leave behind."
Once or twice he shed tears. Upon hearing a wandering musician in the
street playing some tune of his childhood he might never hear again,
he wept, and said to his mother, "Give him some money for me!"
"Northward he turneth through a little door,
And scarce three steps, ere Music's golden tongue,
Flattered to tears this aged man and poor;
But no--already had his death-bell rung,
The joys of all his life were said and sung."
He died on the 6th of May, 1862, and had a public funeral from the
parish church a few days later. On his coffin his friend Channing
placed several inscriptions, among them this, "Hail to thee, O
man! who hast come from the transitory place to the imperishable."
This sentiment may stand as faintly marking Thoreau's deep, vital
conviction of immortality, of which he never had entertained a doubt
in his life. There was in his view of the world and its Maker no room
for doubt; so that when he was once asked, superfluously, what he
thought of a future world and its compensations, he replied, "Those
were voluntaries I did not take,"--having confined himself to the
foreordained course of things. He is buried in the village cemetery,
quaintly named "Sleepy Hollow," with his family and friends about him;
one of whom, surviving him for a few years, said, as she looked upon
his low head-stone on the hillside, "Concord is Henry's monument,
covered with suitable inscriptions by his own hand."
INDEX.
Academy, Concord, 46.
Acton, originally a part of Concord, 32.
Adams, John Quincy, 78.
Adams, Samuel, 100.
African Slaves in Concord, 203-205.
Agassiz, Louis, 115, 243, 245.
Agricola at Marseilles, 64.
Alcott, A. Bronson, sonnet on Thoreau, v.;
born in Connecticut, 63;
at Concord Lyceum, 49;
visits Dr. Ripley, 80;
in old age, 81;
goes to live in Concord, 117;
helps "raise" Thoreau's hut, 118;
his School of Philosophy, 121;
an early Transcendentalist, 124;
his Paradise at Fruitlands, 134-140;
a friend of John Brown, 148;
plan of living in Concord woods, 155;
builds a summer-house for Emerson, 194;
his friendship with Thoreau, 186;
his conversations, 187, 188, 190, 199;
from his diary, 192, 195, 304;
peddler in Virginia, 187, 260;
visits Horace Greeley, 188;
harbors a fugitive slave, 195;
lends Thoreau his axe, 209;
goes to the opera with Greeley, 241;
with Thoreau in New Bedford, 267;
his opinion of Thoreau, 306.
Alcott, Louisa, 63, 91.
Allston, Washington, visits Concord, 111.
American literature, Thoreau's view of, 160.
American Slavery, Thoreau's opposition to, 195, 199, 292;
John Brown's attack upon, 292, 303.
Assabet River, 15, 33, 114, 202.
Ball, B. W., 135.
Bangor, 1, 5, 245.
Barnes, Lucy, 109, 110.
Barrett, Humphrey, a Concord farmer, 89, 98, 103, 107.
Barrett, Joseph, 114-117.
Bartlett, Dr. Josiah, 43, 44.
Bartlett, Robert, 190.
Bedford (the town), 9, 12.
Bedford road, 12, 270.
Betsey (Thoreau), 3, 4.
Bigelow, Dr. H. J., 62.
Blake, Harrison, 141, 301, 305, 307.
Bliss, Rev. Daniel, 74, 75, 99, 100.
Bliss, Daniel, the Tory, 100, 204.
Bliss, Phebe, 75, 205.
Boston, the home of John Thoreau, the Jerseyman, 2, 6;
of Henry Thoreau, 27;
birth-place of Emerson, 63.
Boston Miscellany, 220.
Bowen, Prof. Francis, 62.
Bradford, George P., 46.
Bradford, Gershom, 105.
Bremer, Frederika, 141.
Brisbane, Albert, 133, 134.
Brister's Hill, 202.
Brister, a freedman, 203, 205, 208.
Brook Farm, 134, 141.
Brooks, Nathan, 42, 46, 77, 105, 112.
Brooks, Mrs. Nathan, 68.
Brown, John, of Osawatomie, 146, 185, 199, 242, 292, 293, 295, 303.
Brown, Mrs., of Plymouth, 60.
Brownson, Orestes A., 53.
Bruno, Giordano, quoted, 208.
Bulkley family in Concord, 33, 39, 98.
Burke, Edmund, quoted, 299.
Buttrick, Major, 102.
Cambridge, Thoreau's residence in, 51;
letters from, 56, 61;
Thoreau's visit to, 196.
Campbell, Sir Archibald, 68.
Canada, Thoreau's excursion to, 233, 235.
Cape Cod, 236, 264.
Carlyle, Thomas, 124, 125, 193, 233;
Thoreau's essay on, 218-224.
Channing, Rev. Dr., 80, 82, 144.
Channing, Ellery (the poet), 11, 41, 49-51, 63, 70, 135, 136, 177-189;
his lines on Emerson, 69;
on Thoreau, 185, 214;
quoted, 49-51;
his friendship for Thoreau, 178-185;
his verses on Hawthorne, 188;
his house, 198;
his letters to Thoreau, 209, 218;
calls Thoreau Idolon, 252;
and Rudolpho, 253;
visits Monadnoc, 255;
describes Thoreau, 262, 267, 291, 315;
his biography of Thoreau, 11, 49, 301.
Channing, Rev. W. H., 140, 141, 174, 216.
Chapman, Dr., 193.
Chappaqua, 241.
Cheney, Mrs., of Concord, 18, 93.
Cohasset, 91, 175.
Columella, 132.
Concord (town of) described, 32-40;
celebrities, 41-48, 63-96;
farmers, 97-123;
Lyceum, 47, 48, 168;
as a transcendental capital, 135, 143, 146;
the home of Channing and Thoreau, 178;
localities, 201-204;
freedmen, 204;
jail, 207;
the monument to Thoreau, 317.
Concord Fight, 76, 86, 99, 102, 109.
Concord grape, 34.
Concord River, 33, 140, 154, 167, 176, 178, 183, 188, 199, 202, 208.
Concord Village, 189, 201;
trade in, 35;
customs of, 40, 46, 48, 64, 72, 76, 87, 116, 122.
Connecticut, 73, 82, 127, 186.
Corner, Nine-Acre, 70, 84, 208.
Davenant, Sir William, 127, 164.
"Departure, The," 282, 305.
Dial, The, 127, 135, 163, 168, 171, 173, 212, 217, 248.
Diana, Ascription to, 260.
Dunbar, Rev. Asa, 8, 9, 20.
Dunbar, Charles, uncle of Thoreau, 21-24, 92, 93.
Dunbar, Cynthia (mother of Thoreau), 8, 18, 19, 21, 24-28, 50, 57, 92,
96, 312.
Dunbar, Louisa, 13-17, 21.
Edwards, Jonathan, quoted, 128.
"Egomites," 80.
Emerson, Charles, 46.
Emerson, Miss Mary, 19, 20, 75.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, born in Boston, 63;
a descendant of Concord ministers, 39;
quoted, 37;
began to lecture in Concord, 48;
begins acquaintance with Thoreau, 59;
goes to live in Concord, 69;
draws people there, 71;
describes Dr. Ripley, 77-84;
describes the "Concord Fight," 103;
on Captain Hardy, 121, 123;
goes to Europe, 281;
his "Forester," 251;
his proposition for an international magazine, 193;
on Thoreau's acquaintance with Nature, 251, 252;
on Thoreau's patience in observation, 250;
his relations with Thoreau, 189;
his summer-house, 194, 278;
tries to work in the woods, 278;
praises Thoreau's "Smoke," 287;
gives his funeral eulogy, 313.
Emerson, William, 190.
Endymion of Concord, 260.
Essays of Thoreau, in college, 150-163;
"Effect of Story Telling," 158;
"L'Allegro and Il Penseroso," 156;
"National Characteristics," 160;
"Paley's Common Reasons," 161;
"Punishment," 158;
"Source of our feeling for the Sublime," 159;
"Simplicity of Style," 156.
Everett, Edward, 88.
Fairhaven Cliffs, 153.
Fenda, the fortune teller, 204.
Fields, James T., 300, 306.
Forbes, Mrs. W. H., recollections of Thoreau, 270-273.
"Forester, The," verse by Emerson, 257.
"Fruitlands," in Harvard, 135-137.
Fugitive Slave, in Concord, 195.
Fuller, Margaret, in Concord, 70;
criticises Thoreau's poems, 169-172;
rejects a prose article by him, 173;
her character, 174;
in Cambridge, 191;
at a conversation, 190;
visit to Europe, marriage, and death, 230;
writes for the "Tribune," and lives with H. Greeley, 217.
Gardiner, Dr., 79, 80.
Garfield, his ancestors, 204.
Gilman, Rev. Nicholas, 128-130.
Goodwin, Rev. H. B., 83.
Graham, George R., 222, 224.
Graham's Magazine, 213, 224.
Graveyard in Lincoln, 204.
Greeley, Horace, as Mæcenas, 217;
editor of the "Tribune," 216;
described by Margaret Fuller, 217;
his correspondence with Thoreau, 219-229, 231-240;
invites Thoreau to Chappaqua, satirized by W. E. Channing, 218.
Griswold, R. W., 220, 222.
Hafiz, quoted, 166.
Hamilton, Alexander, 113.
Hampden, John, 107.
Hardy, Captain, 120-122.
Harvard Magazine, 196.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, moves and removes to Concord, 70;
quoted, 71;
Channing's verses on, 188;
Emerson's influence on, 148;
his "Scarlet Letter," 277;
invites Thoreau to lecture in Salem, 276;
returns to Concord, 278;
returns thither from Europe, 189.
Herald's Office, London, 108.
Heywood, Dr. Abiel, 38, 40-42.
Heywood, George, 39.
Hildreth, S. T., 57.
Hoar, E. R., 90, 312.
Hoar, Edward, 254.
Hoar, Miss Elizabeth, 239.
Hoar, Mrs. Samuel, 96.
Hoar, Samuel, 46, 72, 90, 95, 112.
Hollowell Farm, 172, _note_, 208.
Hosmer Cottage, 117.
Hosmer, Cyrus, 111.
Hosmer, Edmund, 118-120.
Hosmer, James, 98.
Hosmer, Joseph (the Major), 98, 99, 100, 109, 111, 112, 113.
Hosmer, Lucy, 110.
Hurd, Dr. Isaac, 42.
Icarus, 202.
Indians, (American), 240, 242, 248.
Ingraham, Cato, a slave, 203.
Ingraham, Duncan, 66-68.
Jack, John, a negro, 204;
epitaph on, 205.
Jackson, Dr. C. T., 246, 247.
James, Henry, 305.
Jarvis, Deacon Francis, 76, 77.
Jarvis, Dr. Edward, 76.
Jersey, Isle of, 1-4.
Journal of Thoreau, 2, 150, 154, 167.
Ktaadn, and Thoreau's visit there, 226, 227, 228, 245.
Keene, N. H., 18.
Kosta, Martin, 67.
Lane, Charles, 135-141.
Lee family, 114;
their farm and hill, 115.
Letters from Maria Thoreau, 5;
from D. Webster, 15;
from Josiah Quincy, 53, 61;
from Dr. Ripley, 57, 81;
from Dr. Channing to Dr. Ripley, 82;
from Charles Lane, to Thoreau, 137-140;
from A. G. Peabody, 55, 56;
from R. W. Emerson, 155, 193;
from F. B. Sanborn, 197;
from Henry Thoreau, 92, 181, 209, 210, 216, 307, 308, 314;
from Horace Greeley, 219, 222-231, 233-240;
from Margaret Fuller, 169-173;
from Dr. Ripley, 144-146;
from Sophia Thoreau, 176, 268, 306, 310, 314;
letter to Sophia Thoreau, 189, 216, 281.
Levet, Robert, 43.
Lowell, James Russell, 112, 246.
Mæcenas, Greeley as, 216-241.
Manse, Old, built in 1766, 75;
occupied by Hawthorne 85;
Channing's verses on, 188;
farmers at, 86-88;
"Mosses from," 183;
first mistress of, 205.
Marlboro road, 109.
Marryatt, Captain, 67.
Marvell, Andrew, 42.
Massey, Gerald, 240.
Merrick, Tilly, 67, 108.
Milton, John, 156, 157.
Minott, George, 22, 24, 92, 274.
Minott, Mrs., the grandmother of Thoreau, 9-11.
Minute-Man, statue of, 86.
Monadnoc, 115, 254-257.
Moore, Abel ("Captain Hardy"), 120, 121.
Morton, Edwin, 197.
Munroe of Lexington and Concord, 66;
William, 37, 152.
Musketaquid, 33.
Nature, "born and brought up in Concord," 96;
Thoreau's observation of, 252, 285.
Orrok, David, 2.
Orrok, Sarah, 2.
Out-door life of Thoreau, at Walden, 209, 211;
in general, 242, 243, 249-252, 264-267;
by night, 304.
Parker, Theodore, 69;
school candidate, 88.
"Past and Present," by Carlyle, notice of, 217.
Peabody, A. G., letter from, 54.
Peabody, Elizabeth P., 70, 168.
Penobscot River, 245.
Pepperell, Sir William, 129.
Perry, Joseph, 67.
Phalanstery, 140, 141, 216.
Phillips, Wendell, at Concord, 49.
Pierpont, Sarah, 128.
Pillsbury, Parker, 314.
Poems, quoted from Tennyson, 31;
from Ellery Channing, 24, 69, 119, 176, 184, 185, 215, 252, 255;
Emerson's "Saadi", 119;
"Maine Woods," 246, 247;
Milton, 181;
Thoreau's "Love," 167;
"Sympathy," 164;
"The Maiden in the East," 165;
to his brother John, 176;
The Departure, 282;
"The Pilgrims," 285;
"Smoke" (a fragment), 287;
from T. P. Sanborn, 260;
from Keats, 316.
Poet, the character of, 284.
Ponkawtassett Hill, 86, 182.
Putnam's Magazine, 236, 237.
Quarterly, Massachusetts, 230.
Quincy, Josiah, 52;
letter from, 53, 61;
certificate in favor of Thoreau, 61.
Ralston, Mrs. Laura Dunbar, 19.
Ricketson, Daniel, 176, 188, 263;
description of Thoreau's actual appearance, 266;
disappointment in imagined personal appearance of Thoreau, 264;
on Thoreau's domestic character, 267;
describes Thoreau's dance, 268;
Letters from Thoreau to, 308, 309;
Letter from Sophia Thoreau to, 310.
Ripley, Dr. (pastor at Concord), petition to Grand Lodge of Masons, 1-9;
letter from, 25;
certificate in favor of Thoreau's father, 26;
schism in parish of, 28, 85;
Thoreau baptized by, 45;
letter from Edward Everett to, 47;
letter introducing Thoreau as a teacher, 57;
anecdotes of, 73-80, 86, 87;
letter to Dr. Channing, 81;
reply, 82;
his prayers, 83, 84;
letter on the Transcendental movement, 144, 146.
Ripley, Rev. Samuel, 74.
Ripley, Mrs. Sarah, 85.
Robbins, Cæsar, a negro, 104, 203.
Sanborn, F. B., acquaintance with Thoreau, 196;
extract from diary, 198, 199;
introduces John Brown to Thoreau, 199;
letter to Thoreau, 197.
Sanborn, T. P., his "Endymion" quoted, 260.
Sartain, John, 232.
"Service, The," 172.
Sewall, Ellen, 163.
"Shay," a one-horse, 131-133.
Slave, fugitive, 195.
Staten Island, 89, 92, 305.
Sunday prospect, 152.
Sunday walkers, 85.
Tacitus, quoted, 64.
Teufelsdröckh, 210.
Thoreau family, 4, 5, 27-31.
Thoreau, Helen, 59-61.
Thoreau, Henry, his ancestry, 1-10;
born in Concord, 12;
his mother, 8, 24;
his father, 25;
as a pencil-maker, 37;
first dwelling-place, 45;
at the Concord Academy, 46;
enters Harvard College, 46;
at Chelmsford, 49;
his childish stoicism, 50;
his graduation, 51;
as school teacher, 52;
a beneficiary of Harvard College, 53, 54;
his certificate from Dr. Ripley, 57, 58;
from Emerson, 59;
beginning of acquaintance with Emerson, 59;
his "Sic Vita," 60;
Quincy's certificate, 61;
a Transcendentalist, 124;
first essays in authorship, 149, 153;
description of a visit to Fairhaven Cliffs, 153, 154;
his early poems, 164-167;
his first lecture, 168;
his "Walk to Wachusett," 169;
his earliest companion, 175;
his friendship with Ellery Channing, 178-183;
his praise of Alcott, 186;
goes to Alcott's conversations, 187;
visits Chappaqua and Walt Whitman, 188;
his burial place, 189;
his relation with Emerson, 189, 190;
reads his "Week" to Alcott, 192;
designs a lodge for Emerson, 194;
his acquaintance with Sanborn, 195;
at Walden, 201;
his reasons for going to Walden, 212;
edits "The Week," 212;
talks with W. H. Channing and Greeley, 216;
his essay on Carlyle, 218-225;
his paper on "Ktaadn" and the "Maine Woods," 225;
his "Week," 230;
asks Greeley for a loan, 235;
his "Canada," and "Cape Cod," 235, 236;
Greeley asks him to become a tutor, 241;
his out-door life, 242;
collects specimens for Agassiz, 243, 245;
his visits to Maine, 245, 248;
as a naturalist, 249-252;
a night on Mount Washington, 254;
his Monadnoc trip, 256-257;
his description of a Concord heifer, 258, 259;
his apostrophe to the "Queen of Night," 259;
his face, 199, 261, 266;
described by Channing, 262;
by Ricketson, 263-266;
travels on Cape Cod, 264;
domestic character, 267;
dances, 268;
sings "Tom Bowline," 269;
his social traits, 270-273;
as author and lecturer, 274-277;
his manual labor, 278;
fashion of his garments, 279;
income from authorship, 280;
lives in Emerson's household, 281;
his parable, 285;
his habit of versification, 286;
his reading, 286;
as naturalist, 288-291;
his theory of labor and leisure, 288;
his political philosophy, 292;
eras in his life, 297;
his aim in writing, 298;
his religion, 299;
his business in life, 300;
his method in writing, 304;
his sunset walks, 307;
his aversion to society, 307;
his decline and death, 313-316;
his funeral, 317.
Thoreau, John, the father, 25, 27.
Thoreau, John, the brother, 175, 178.
Thoreau, John, the Jerseyman; 1, 5-7, 37.
Thoreau, Maria, 1-8.
Thoreau, Sophia, 29, 38, 44, 265, 282, 301, 305, 310, 315;
letter from, 176, 268, 306, 310-314;
letters to, 189, 216, 281.
"Tom Bowline," sung by Thoreau, 268, 269, 272.
Transcendentalism, 124, 126, 133, 142, 247, 279;
in New England, 124-126;
in politics, 292-296;
social and unsocial, 141-145;
at Brook Farm, 134;
at Fruitlands, 137.
Transcendentalists of Concord, 63, 70, 76, 80, 119, 134-137, 143, 146,
148, 288, 307.
Transcendental Period, 124-147.
"Tribune," New York, 217, 230, 238.
Very, Jones, 51, 190.
Wachusett, 115, 138, 169, 220.
Walden (the book), 196, 211, 214, 239,240.
Walden Hermitage, 201-215.
Walden woods, 11, 155, 202, 209, 212, 214.
Watson, Marston, 188, 197.
Webster, Daniel, a lover of Louisa Dunbar, 13, 14;
describes his native place, 15-17;
his friendship for Louisa Dunbar, 17, 93;
at the "Wyman Trial," 90;
his "rose-cold," 91;
visits in Concord, 93;
letter to Mrs. Cheney, 94;
described by Carlyle, 293;
by Thoreau, 294;
contrasted with Thoreau, 296.
Webster, Prof. J. W., 56.
"Week," The, (Thoreau's first book), 183, 196, 213, 230, 240, 299, 304.
Weiss, Rev. John, 57.
"Westminster Review," 240.
Wharton, Thomas, 298.
Whig Review, 238.
Whitefield, G., letter to, 129.
Whiting, Colonel, 36, 46.
Whiting, Rev. John, 65.
Whitman, Walt, 186, 188.
Whittier, J. G., quoted, 131.
Wigglesworth, Michael, 131.
Willard, Major, 32, 98.
Woolman, John, 127, 130.
Zilpha, the Walden Circe, 203.
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FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Emerson's Sketch of Dr. Ripley._ Hood, in his _Music
for the Million_, describes an angry man as slamming a door "with a
_wooden damn_."]
[Footnote 2: At the date of this letter Dr. Ripley was not quite
eighty-two, and he lived to be more than ninety. Mr. Alcott, who has
now passed the age of eighty-two, has been for years doing in some
degree what Dr. Channing urged the patriarch of his denomination to
do, but which the old minister never found time and strength for. It
is curious that these two venerable men, whose united life in Concord
covers a period of more than a century, both came from Connecticut.]
[Footnote 3: This princely anecdote is paralleled, in its way, by one
told of Gershom Bradford, of Duxbury, son of Colonel Gam. Bradford,
the friend of Washington and Kosciusko, but himself a plain Old
Colony farmer. Once walking in his woods, he saw a man cutting down
a fine tree; he concealed himself that the man might not see him,
and went home. When asked why he did not stop the trespasser, he
replied, "Could not the poor man have a tree?" Gershom Bradford was a
descendant of Governor Bradford, the Pilgrim, and uncle of Mrs. Sarah
Ripley, of Concord.]
[Footnote 4: This would, of course, diminish his own share, as the law
then stood, from one half the estate to one fourth, or less.]
[Footnote 5: "These facts," says his biographer, whom I knew well,
"show clearly, I think, not only that his love of right was stronger
than his love of money, but that he would rather make any sacrifice of
property than leave a doubt in his own mind whether justice had been
done to others."]
[Footnote 6: Lucy Barnes, daughter of Jonathan and Rachel Barnes of
Marlborough, was born July 7, 1742, married Joseph Hosmer, of Concord,
December 24, 1761, and died in Concord, ----, ----. Her brother was
Rev. Jonathan Barnes, born in 1749, graduated at Harvard College, in
1770, and settled as a minister in Hillsborough, N. H., where he died
in 1805.]
[Footnote 7: The resemblance between some of John Woolman's utterances
and those of Henry Thoreau has been noticed by Whittier, who says of
the New Jersey Quaker, "From his little farm on the Rancocas he looked
out with a mingled feeling of wonder and sorrow upon the hurry and
unrest of the world; he regarded the merely rich man with unfeigned
pity. With nothing of his scorn, he had all of Thoreau's commiseration
for people who went about, bowed down with the weight of broad acres
and great houses on their backs." The "scorn" of Thoreau and the
"pity," of Woolman, sprang from a common root, however.]
[Footnote 8: The Hollowell Place, no doubt.]
[Footnote 9: In building this quaint structure, Thoreau was so averse
to Mr. Alcott's plan of putting up and tearing down with no settled
design of form on paper, that he withdrew his mechanic hand, so
skillful in all carpenter work.]
[Footnote 10: No such letter appears.]
[Footnote 11: That is to say, a low price compared with what is now
paid. As the letter courteously states some matters that have now
become curious, it may be given:--
"PHILADELPHIA, _March 24, 1852_.
"DEAR SIR,--I have read the articles of Mr. Thoreau
forwarded by you, and will be glad to publish them if
our terms are satisfactory. We generally pay for prose
composition per printed page, and would allow him three
dollars per page. We do not pay more than four dollars
for any that we now engage. I did not suppose our maximum
rate would have paid you (Mr. Greeley) for your lecture,
and therefore requested to know your own terms. Of course,
when an article is unusually desirable, we may deviate
from rule; I now only mention ordinary arrangement. I was
very sorry not to have your article, but shall enjoy the
reading of it in Graham. Mr. T. might send us some further
contributions, and shall at least receive prompt and
courteous decision respecting them. Yours truly,
"JOHN SARTAIN."
It seems sad so candid and amiable a publisher should not have
succeeded.]
[Footnote 12: It was a "Primo Flauto" of his father's, who, like
himself, was a sweet player on the flute, and had performed with that
instrument in the parish choir, before the day of church-organs in
Concord.]
[Footnote 13: Thoreau says of this adventure: "After putting our
packs under a rock, having a good hatchet, I proceeded to build a
substantial house. This was done about dark, and by that time we were
as wet as if we had stood in a hogshead of water. We then built a fire
before the door, directly on the site of our camp of two years ago.
Standing before this, and turning round slowly, like meat that is
roasting, we were as dry, if not drier than ever, after a few hours,
and so, at last, we turned in."]
Transcriber's Notes
Minor punctuation errors have been silently corrected.
Page 39: Changed "aniversary" to "anniversary."
(Orig: two hundredth aniversary of the town settlement.)
Footnote from Page 111: Dashes represent blank spaces of unrecorded
death date. (Orig: and died in Concord, ----, ----.)
Page 130: Changed "acknowlege" to "acknowledge."
(Orig: to pure love, I may acknowlege with gratitude)
Page 229: Changed "existnce" to "existence."
(Orig: let common people know of his existnce.)
Page 234: Changed "that" to "than."
(Orig: make a use for them at this season that at any other.")