MR. HENRY THOREAU,
Earl House, Coach Office.
NEW YORK, February 17, 1846.
DEAR FRIEND,--The books you were so kind as to deposit about two years
and a half ago with Messrs. Wiley & Putnam have all been sold, but as
they were left in your name it is needful, in strict business, that
you should send an order to them to pay to me the amount due. I will
therefore thank you to inclose me such an order at your earliest
convenience in a letter addressed to your admiring friend,
CHARLES LANE,
Post Office, New York City.
BOONTON, N. J., March 30, 1846.
DEAR FRIEND,--If the human nature participates of the elemental I am
no longer in danger of becoming suburban, or super-urban, that is to
say, too urbane. I am now more likely to be converted into a
petrifaction, for slabs of rock and foaming waters never so abounded
in my neighborhood. A very Peter I shall become: on this rock _He_ has
built _his church_. You would find much joy in these eminences and in
the views therefrom.
My pen has been necessarily unproductive in the continued motion of
the sphere in which I have lately been moved. You, I suppose, have not
passed the winter to the world's unprofit.
You never have seen, as I have, the book with a preface of 450 pages
and a text of 60. My letter is like unto it.
I have only to add that your letter of the 26th February did its work,
and that I submit to you cordial thanks for the same. Yours truly,