[35] Where Agassiz was giving a course of Lowell lectures.
[36] The town almshouse was across the field from the Emerson house.
[37] At this date Alcott had passed his forty-eighth year, while
Channing and Thoreau were still in the latitude of thirty. Hawthorne
had left Concord, and was in the Salem custom-house, the Old Manse
having gone back into the occupancy of Emerson's cousins, the Ripleys,
who owned it.
[38] See Sanborn's _Thoreau_, p. 214, and Channing's _Thoreau_, New
Edition, pp. 207-210, for this poem.
[39] This is the political neighbor mentioned in a former letter.
[40] From England Emerson wrote: "I am not of opinion that your book
should be delayed a month. I should print it at once, nor do I think
that you would incur any risk in doing so that you cannot well afford.
It is very certain to have readers and debtors, here as well as there.
The Dial is absurdly well known here. We at home, I think, are always
a little ashamed of it,--I am,--and yet here it is spoken of with the
utmost gravity, and I do not laugh."
[41] This letter was addressed, "R. Waldo Emerson, care of Alexander
Ireland, Esq., Manchester, England, _via_ New York and Steamer
Cambria, March 25." It was mailed in Boston, March 24, and received in
Manchester, April 19.