CHAPTER IX
THOREAU'S SERVICE AND RANK IN LITERATURE
IN Thoreau's first book, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers," occur two significant sentences,—"Fame itself is but an epitaph; as late, as false, as true. But they only are the true epitaphs which Old Mortality retouches." Like many other words, viewed from the focus of the present, these seem prophetic of Thoreau's own tardy recognition, revivified and strengthened by the pulse of passing Time. It is still impossible to give an ultimate prediction regarding his future rank but his present status is worthy of attention. Opinion is yet divergent on the question of his work, as literature, per se. Some critics explain the interest which tenaciously clings to his name by his unique personality. Others, equally insistent, place him high on the century's list of authors, because of his marked originality in theme and form. Some would even outclass Emerson by Thoreau and prophesy that the popularity of the former among his contemporaries is only another indication of his supersedence among later generations by the man, so often called his
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