Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/170

 146 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1843,

built his cabin at Walden and retired there ; while Hawthorne entered the Salem Custom house, and Alcott, returning defeated from his Fruitlands paradise, was struggling with poverty and discouragement at Concord. Charles Lane, his English comrade, withdrew to New York or its vicinity, and in 1846 to London, whence he had come in 1842, full of hope and enthusiasm. A few notes of his, or about him, may here find place. They were sent to Thoreau at Concord, and show that Lane continued to value his can did friend. The first, written after leaving Fruitlands, introduces the late Father Hecker, who had been one of the family there, to Tho reau. The second and third relate to the sale of the Alcott-Lane library, and other matters.

CHARLES LANE TO THOREAU (AT CONCORD). BOSTON, December 3, 1843.

DEAR FRIEND, As well as my Avounded hands permit, I have scribbled something for friend Hecker, which if agreeable may be the opportunity for entering into closer relations with him; a course I think likely to be mutually encouraging, as well as beneficial to all men. But let it reach him in the manner most con formable to your own feelings. That from all perils of a false position you may shortly be re lieved, and landed in the position where you feel