HENRY THOREAU
his effort “to hold intercourse with his mind.” With all their honour for one another, and their Spartan affection, satisfactory talks then seem to have been rare. But a long afternoon's ramble with Pan guiding to each sight, or sound, or fragrance, perhaps to be found only on that day, was dear privilege, and celebrated as such by Emerson in his journals.
But even Pan “took sides” when Liberty was in peril, the Greek tradition tells us,1 and so did his Concord followers. In the dark days of 1853 Mr. Emerson wrote: “I go for those who have received a retaining fee to this party of Freedom before they came into the world. I would trust Garrison, I would trust Henry Thoreau, that they would make no compromises.”
It is good to know that it has been recorded of Alcott, the benign idealist,
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