Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/467

 asT.43.] CHOLMONDELKT TO THOREAU. 441

but not in the same island where my people are ! Besides, we are certainly on the eve of a conti nental blaze, so we are making merry and liv ing while ice can ; not being sure where we shall be this time a year.

Give my affectionate regards to your father, mother, and sister, and to Mr. Emerson and his family, and to Channing, Sanborn, Ricketson, Blake, and Morton and Alcott and Parker. A thought arises in my mind whether I may not be enumerating some dead men ! Perhaps Par ker is !

These rumors of wars make me wish that we had got done with this brutal stupidity of war altogether ; and I believe, Thoreau, that the hu- / man race will at last get rid of it, though per- V haps not in a creditable way ; but such powers will be brought to bear that it will become mon strous even to the French. Dundonald declared to the last that he possessed secrets which from their tremendous character would make war im possible. So peace may be begotten from the machinations of evil.

Have you heard of any good books lately ? I think &quot; Burnt Njal &quot; good, and believe it to be genuine. &quot; Hast thou not heard &quot; (says Stein- rora to Thangbrand) &quot;how Thor challenged Christ to single combat, and how he did not dare to fight with Thor?&quot; When Gunnar