VII
IN OLD CONCORD
The Unspoiled Haunts of Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau
One may seek in vain in Concord the reason
for Concord. "It is an odd jealousy," says Emerson,
"but the poet finds himself not near enough
to his object. The pine tree, the river, the bank
of flowers before him, does not seem to be nature.
Nature is still elsewhere. This or this is but
outskirt and far-off reflection and echo of the
triumph that has passed by, and is now in its
glancing splendor and heyday, perchance in the
neighboring fields, or if you stand in the field,
then in the adjacent wood."
With this same odd jealousy one may tramp the fields and woods, the pleasant highways and the village green to-day and not quite find Concord, for the Concord that one's mind presaged has passed on. This is but far-off reflection and echo of the triumph. Fuit Ilium. Yet here is
