The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-04-16
PAGES
9 to II.

This contains chapter on wood sounds
which lovers OF nature ought TO know
by heart.
Thoreau was shy of strangers. Hls
favorite guests were the children, and
he loved to teach them the secrets OF
nature. His friends were dear; but, hest
of all. he loved his solitudes and always
turned his back on cities after his lec-
turing tours, overjoyed that he was ny.
ing TO his woods.
What could. he not tell OF the notes
or Insects and birds, What could he
not interpret OF the tones OF the four
footed animalsi What did he not know
OF the scarce and curious flowers grow
ing in most infrequented places, How
many plants did ne discover In Concord
woods that no one had ever observed
before! One in particular was the
climbing fern. Then there was the red
snow (arctic) that he found In one of
his walks. so .elating him that he told
Emerson he even expected to 7nd the
Victoria regia in these prolific soli-
tudes.
Dear. simple, grand Thoreau, who
was not even afraid to make a speech
for old John Brown after his arrest at
Harper's Ferry, in spite OF the advice
or his townsman, as public sympathy
was then entirely against his old friend!
Well has Emerson compared him to the
Swiss edelweiss, that rare flower whose
signihcation Is noble purity. and he
further wrote that Thoreau seemed liv-
ing in the hope to gather this plant.
which belonged to him of right. To
quote from this seer Of Concord, "The
country knows not yet. or In the least
part, how great son 1t has lost
When the Alcotts owned The Way
side. they called 1t The Hillside. From
1S4J to 1S4S they resided there and then
removed to Boston. In 1867 they rGgurn-
ed and settled I'm the Orchard House.
which was next The Wayside. Soon aft
erward we find him experimenting the
public schools OF Concord, successfully
cultivating the few acres about his
house, instructing, philosophizing and
holding his famous Conversations
upon divinity, human nature. dietetics
and a wide range of practical questions.
Also he was one of the originators
of the Transcendental club. Among the
leading spirits were George Ripley
Ralph Waldo Emerson. James Freeman
Clarke, Theodore Parker. Margaret Full
Ter and William III. Claiming.
During this period of transcendental
agitation Mr.. Alcott passed through
certain stages as reformer. He gave up
animal food, joined the antislavery So
ciety. was active as an abolitionist and
became interested in the establishment
of community at Harvard Mass. This
community. Brook Farm. although un-
der the guidance of such persons as
George Ripley. Margaret Fuller and
Nathaniel Hawthorne. fell through.
which was probably the best thing that
could have happened. It's failure taught
Mr.. Alcott a severe lesson. says the
chronicler. as afterward he had ''less
desire to change the condition Of men
upon earth than to modify and en-
tighten their inward life
Mr.. Alcott was ever hoping that q
school OF the first philosophy would be
established somewhere in New England
and as early as 1912 began TO collecA
books for the library Of such a school.
Moreover. an English gentleman. Mr.
| James Pierrepont Greaves, disciple
OF Pestalozzi, actually bequeathed him
a collection OF curious volumes. which
were subsequently deposited in Con-
cord to await the blessed time when the
school OF philosophy should spring into
being.
And spring into being II did after
these volumes had stood for years on
the shelves of the Orchard House. The
school was opened informally at Con-
cord I'm 1879, with its faculty Of philoso-
ply and members from many different
localities, the Orchard House being the
place OF meeting. Mr.. Alcott was the
retary.
Concord has erected a firiA monument
to those of her soldiers who fell in the
late civil war. 1t records on a bronze
tablet the names OF all the heroes. The
motto is. Faithful Unto Death"
| Close by is the old elm under which
| Rev. William Emerson made his fa-
nous address to the minutemen on
the morning OF the Concord fight. and
| here nearly a hundred years afterward
his grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
delivered the dedicatory address of this
monument, his most distinguished lis
| teners being the descendants Of those
minutemen who had but Just returned
| from the battlefelds of the south.
The graves Of Hawthorne. Emerson.
| Thoreau and the Alcotts are in Sleepy
| Hollow cemetery. Yes. here, together
in their last sleep, lie those who have
made Concord ''the star In the east" to
those of us who are fired with reveren-
| tial love for goodness and genius COM
bined. These are classic ashes. Tread
your softest, but let the heart swell In
| joyous thanksgiving that America has
| such a spot of ground!
Happy are We, ye river worshipers, In
that lovely river that, as your Thoreau
! says. moves through your historic VAL
| leys with the moccasined tread Of an
| Indian warrior Happier are We In
your houses breathing of the times Of
old, In your historic associations, in
your monuments, in your meadows.
streams and groves that have so sften
rung with the tones of genius. in your
hills, engraved as they are With the
lasting impressions of great minds. but
happiest in your dear Sleepy Hollow.
with its graves OF the immortals. A.
Mr.. +. b. Sanborn wrote Of this:
These waving woods these valleys low.
Between these tufted knobs
Year after year shall dearer grow
To many loving souls
And flowers be sweeter here than blow
| Elsewhere between the poles.
ELIZABETH BIRKMAIER