SHREWSBURY [England], April 23, 1861.
MY DEAR THOREAU,--It is now some time since I wrote to you or heard
from you, but do not suppose that I have forgotten you, or shall ever
cease to cherish in my mind those days at dear old Concord. The last I
heard about you all was from Morton,[101] who was in England about a
year ago; and I hope that he has got over his difficulties and is now
in his own country again. I think he has seen rather more of English
country life than most Yankee tourists; and appeared to find it
_curious_, though I fear he was dulled by our ways; for he was too
full of ceremony and compliments and bows, which is a mistake here;
though very well in Spain. I am afraid he was rather on pins and
needles; but he made a splendid speech at a volunteer supper, and
indeed the _very best_, some said, ever heard in this part of the
country.
We are here in a state of alarm and apprehension, the world being so
troubled in East and West and everywhere. Last year the harvest was
bad and scanty. This year our trade is beginning to feel the events in
America. In reply to the northern tariff, of course we are going to
smuggle as much as we can. The supply of cotton being such a necessity
to us, we must work up India and South Africa a little better. There
is war even in old New Zealand, but not in the same island where my
people are! Besides, we are certainly on the eve of a continental
blaze, _so we are making merry and living while we can_; not being
sure where we shall be this time a year.
Give my affectionate regards to your father, mother, and sister, and
to Mr. Emerson and his family, and to Channing, Sanborn, Ricketson,
Blake, and Morton and Alcott and Parker. A thought arises in my mind
whether I may not be enumerating some dead men! Perhaps Parker is!
These rumors of wars make me wish that we had got done with this
brutal stupidity of war altogether; and I believe, Thoreau, that the
human race will at last get rid of it, though perhaps not in a
creditable way; but such _powers_ will be brought to bear that it will
become monstrous even to the French. Dundonald declared to the last
that he possessed secrets which from their tremendous character would
make war impossible. So peace may be begotten from the machinations of
evil.
Have you heard of any good books lately? I think "Burnt Njal" good,
and believe it to be genuine. "Hast thou not heard" (says Steinrora to
Thangbrand) "how Thor challenged Christ to single combat, and how he
did not dare to fight with Thor?" When Gunnar brandishes his sword,
three swords are seen in air. The account of Ospah and Brodir and
Brian's battle is the only historical account of that engagement,
which the Irish talk so much of; for I place little trust in
O'Halloran's authority, though the outline is the same in both.
Darwin's "Origin of Species" may be fanciful, but it is a move in the
right direction. Emerson's "Conduct of Life" has done me good; but it
will not go down in England for a generation or so. But _these_ are
some of them already a year or two old. The book of the season is Du
Chaillu's "Central Africa," with accounts of the Gorilla, of which you
are aware that you have had a skeleton at Boston for many years. There
is also one in the British Museum; but they have now several stuffed
specimens at the Geographical Society's rooms in Town. I suppose you
will have seen Sir Emerson Tennent's "Ceylon," which is perhaps as
complete a book as ever was published; and a better monument to a
governor's residence in a great province was never made.
We have been lately astonished by a foreign Hamlet, a supposed
impossibility; but Mr. Fechter does real wonders. No doubt he will
visit America, and then you may see the best actor in the world. He
has carried out Goethe's idea of Hamlet as given in the "Wilhelm
Meister," showing him forth as a fair-haired and fat man. I suppose
you are not got fat yet?
Yours ever truly,
THOS. CHOLMONDELEY.[102]