The date of this visit to Eagleswood is worthy of note, because in
that November Thoreau made the acquaintance of the late Walt Whitman,
in whom he ever after took a deep interest. Accompanied by Mr. Alcott,
he called on Whitman, then living at Brooklyn; and I remember the calm
enthusiasm with which they both spoke of Whitman upon their return to
Concord. "Three men," said Emerson, in his funeral eulogy of Thoreau,
"have of late years strongly impressed Mr. Thoreau,--John Brown, his
Indian guide in Maine, Joe Polis, and a third person, not known to
this audience." This last was Whitman, who has since become well known
to a larger audience.