Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/100

76 refined quality of their sin, and would be the last to enter the kingdom. Henry frankly affirmed to both the wise men that they were wholly defi cient in the faculty in question, and therefore could not judge of it. And Mr. Alcott as frankly answered that it was because they went beyond the mere material objects, and were filled with spiritual love and perception (as Mr. T. was not), that they seemed to Mr. Thoreau not to appreciate outward nature. I am very heavy, and have spoiled a most excellent story. I have given you no idea of the scene, which was ineffa bly comic, though it made no laugh at the time 5 I scarcely laughed at it myself, too deeply amused to give the usual sign. Henry was brave and noble ; well as I have always liked him, he still grows upon me.&quot; Before going to Staten Island in May, 1843, Thoreau answered a letter from the same Rich ard Fuller who had made him the musical gift in the previous winter. He was at Harvard College, and desired to know something of Tho reau s pursuits there, concerning which Chan- ning says in his Life : &quot; He was a respectable