Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/199

 JST. 30.] TO R. W. EMERSON. 175

else, but, after thinking and stuttering a long time, said, &quot; I don t know what the word is,&quot; - the one word, forsooth, that would have disposed of all that Boston phenomenon. If you did not know him better than I, I could tell you more. He is a good companion for me, and I am glad that we are all natives of Concord. It is young Concord. Look out, World !

Mr. Alcott seems to have sat down for the winter. He has got Plato and other books to read. He is as large-featured and hospitable to traveling thoughts and thinkers as ever ; but with the same Connecticut philosophy as ever, mingled with what is better. If he would only stand upright and toe the line ! though he were to put off several degrees of largeness, and put on a considerable degree of littleness. After all, I think we must call him particularly your man.

I have pleasant walks and talks with Chan- ning. James Clark the Swedenborgian that was is at the poorhouse, insane with too large views, so that he cannot support himself. I see him working with Fred and the rest. Better than be there and not insane. It is strange that they will make ado when a man s body is buried, but not when he thus really and tragically dies, or seems to die. Away with your funeral pro-