Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/127

 2ET.25.] TO MRS. EMERSON. 103

The traps of this sportsman were magazine articles, but the magazines that would pay much for papers were very few in 1843. One such had existed in Boston for a short time, the &quot; Miscellany,&quot; - and it printed a good paper of Thoreau s, but the pay was not forthcoming. His efforts to find publishers more liberal in New York were not successful. But he contin ued to write for fame in the &quot; Dial,&quot; and helped to edit that.

TO MES. EMERSON.

STATEN ISLAND, June 20, 1843.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND, I have only read a page of your letter, and have come out to the top of the hill at sunset, where I can see the ocean, to prepare to read the rest. It is fitter that it should hear it than the walls of my cham ber. The very crickets here seem to chirp around me as they did not before. I feel as if it were a great daring to go on and read the rest, and then to live accordingly. There are more than thirty vessels in sight going to sea. I am almost afraid to look at your letter. I see that it will make my life very steep, but it may lead to fairer prospects than this.

You seem to me to speak out of a very clear and high heaven, where any one may be who stands so high. Your voice seems not a voice,