"Social Circle" only Emerson among her authors was admitted in membership; yet the influences towards free thought and literary expression enabled her to recognize intellect and genius of varied kinds, apart from all exclusive social rank. Inevitably there were occasions when family pride dominated broader impulses but, in the main, this town, which won Thoreau's persistent devotion, represented hardy, and kindly, democracy. Senator George F .Hoar, a member of the family of highest social rank, in recalling the memories of his boyhood in Concord, says: "The people, old and young, constituted one great family. . . . They esteemed each other because of personal character, and not on account of wealth, or holding office."
As a courageous and progressive individual is likely to receive misinterpretation from his inert neighbor, content with the laissez-faire principles of society, so a community that takes precedence in reform or education is sure to win envious and dubious comment. An older inhabitant of Concord recalls that, during these years of agitated politics and seething reforms in philosophy and literature, the outside world regarded Concord people "as very queer." Emerson, in his journal, records the mixed pride of the place where visited Everett and Webster, Garrison and Phillips, Bancroft and
