Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-09

Emerson had not lost his memory before
he died, his townsman corrected her
mo, he didn't lose it, Ellen had it
Is ii because NO Trespa ssing' balks
the way that the most fascinating shrine
in Concord is the Old Manse? There are
two views of it: the side view from the
North bridge, the famous North bridge
where the battle was fought, where black
elmS throw q wide circumference of
shade. and green alley of spruce pines.
each planted by a foremost citizen, leads
up to where granite obelisk has grown.
watered by British blood. The other. the
terminating a vista of black ash. its
hoary head hidden in a leafy ambuscade.
In the second story of the Manse the
Rev. William Emerson. another Joshua.
held up his hands while he looked across
the fields at his parishioners, the minute
men charging the bridge. upon the gilt
terling line of British regulars. Here En-
erson wrote Mature" and watched the
Assyrian dawn and the Paphian sunset"
here Thoreau came in his pea jacket and
fur cap, the supple vagabond' who
found no wisdom too lofty for him. no
companionship high enough. 1t is strange
how little Thoreau got out of his friends
in comparison with what they got out of
him. l do not recall one item of news or
philosophy or observation he ascribes to
them. while Emerson. Hawthorne and the
Alcotts are continually saying: Tho
reau tells me, "Thoreau set me on that
still with his weird thoughts, here DOM
mating all other presences, Hawthorne
dwelt and wove his first strange romance.
Along the edge of the Old Manse the
Concord winds it's slumberous way. 1t
is a harmless. blameless stream. idling
among grassy meadows without a bank
to fret its lazy liberty.
Thoreau spent a year of different days
to find which way its current ran, and
Hawthorne three weeks to guess at it.
While he wrote g Nature" Emerson
watched the tranquil woods dip their PEN
dant branches in it, the cardinal flowers
kindle spiral flames on its banks and the
water lilies open their virginia. bosoms to
the sunlight. But we may be sure he did
not trouble himself about so insignificant
detail as its goings and comings. 1t
was enough for Emerson that a thing
was, a river ran, a rose bloomed, and it
would be hard to imagine him muddying
a bright surface to determine SO inmate
rial a matter as a physical fact. For. I'M
like ThOreau, Emerson resorted to ma
ture for the mood into which it put him
and the mental activity it communicated.
Is it heresy to say his pleasure in it like
his pleasure in friendship was a matter
of the mind. and does the suggestion need
to be qualified?
1t is a grief to the lover of Thoreau
one to whom it is an article of faith that
he would have been a wild man if there
had been no civilized one to know it, that
walden is so near to COncord-SO near
that to try to live there in solitude is like
childs putting tent in the front yard
and playing at being an Indian. The
sense of distance is increased no doubt in
the winter when mile and a half of I'M
broken snow separates the wood from the
town but at this season of easy distances
it's titular divinity must have protected
1t from the merry-gO-round and the ice
cream saloon. AS it is | fancy Thor
eau's retreat has much the look of soil
tude he wanted. The site of the hut is
preserved by the custom pety has nsti-
tuted of each visitors throwing a stone
at 1t and the pile though insignificant, is
large enough to indicate the spot a little
Knoll under a spreading oak where the
wood is densest but also where the
branches so part as to show the pond and
the CLEAN of its waters. The twitter of
birds in the trees or from the low bushes
where they fearlessly swing, the untrod-
den undergrowth. and the water lilies
ioating undisturbed on the ponds sur
race preserve the fiction of remoteness to
which the mystery of whence come the
beautiful pellucid waters is an added
charm; the deep well-like lake. perfectly
GEAR, repeating to a line, to shade, the
SKY and hillsides, without ripple or cur
rent, bound by rugged sleeps covered
with pine and oak, rising and falling as
1t VIII, low after u rain, high after q
parching drouth. Walden pond has a
code OF its own. Had Thoreau lived to
a good old age there is no telling how
many people would have experimental in