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THE YEARS OF EXPRESSION

dress, even read at the present day, is trenchant and magnetic. He transcended his usual powers of language and was listened to, says Emerson, "by many with a sympathy that surprised themselves." In the Worcester Spy for November 3, 1859, I found the announcement for the address,—"As Mr. Thoreau never deals in commonplaces,—as he considers Brown a hero,—and as he has been so moved by the Harper's Ferry affair as to feel compelled to leave his customary seclusion in order to address the public, what he has to say is likely to be worth hearing." Surely, it so proved! The opening sentence was a graceful, strong explanation of his attitude,—"I trust that you will pardon me for being here. I do not wish to force my thoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself." He recounts his own deep disturbance in the cause,—his inability to read or sleep, and the urgent sentences written in the dark,—the plea not for Brown's life so much as for his character,—"his immortal life." With the force of a seer he spoke to the slave-committed South,—"Prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question, that must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. . . . You may dispose of me very easily, I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled,—this negro question, I mean; the end of that is not yet."