Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/168

 144 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1845,

on its staff to Margaret Fuller and her brother- in-law Chamiing, and would gladly have made room for Emerson in its columns, if the swift utterance of a morning paper had suited his habit of publication. While in the &quot; Tribune &quot; office, Ellery Chamiing thus wrote to Thoreau, after he had returned home, disappointed with New York, to make lead pencils in his father s shop at Concord.

ELLERY CHANNING TO THOREAU (AT CONCORD).

March 5, 1845.

MY DEAR THOREAU, The handwriting of your letter is so miserable that I am not sure I have made it out. If I have, it seems to me you are the same old sixpence you used to be, rather rusty, but a genuine piece. I see nothing for you in this earth but that field which I once christened &quot; Briars ; &quot; go out upon that, build yourself a hut, and there begin the grand pro cess of devouring yourself alive. I see no alter native, no other hope for you. Eat yourself up ; you will eat nobody else, nor anything else. Concord is just as good a place as any other ; there are, indeed, more people in the streets of that village than in the streets of this. This is a singularly muddy town ; muddy, solitary, and silent.

In your line, I have not done a great deal