Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/487

 JET. 44.] TO DANIEL RICKETSON. 461

sombre, but in robes of white, so becoming to the piety and probity they have known so long, and soon are to miss. There has been none such since Pliny, and it will be long before there comes his like ; the most sagacious and wonder ful Worthy of his time, and a marvel to coming ones.

I write at the suggestion of his sister, who thought his friends would like to be informed of his condition to the latest date.

Ever yours and respectfully,

A. BRONSON ALCOTT.

The last letter of Henry Thoreau, written by the hand of his sister, was sent to Myron Benton, a young literary man then living in Dutchess County, New York, who had written a grateful letter to the author of &quot; Walden &quot; (January 6, 1862), though quite unacquainted with him. Mr. Benton said that the news of Thoreau s ill ness had affected him as if it were that &quot; of a personal friend whom I had known a long time,&quot; and added : &quot; The secret of the influence by which your writings charm me is altogether as intangible, though real, as the attraction of Nature herself. I read and re-read your books with ever fresh delight. Nor is it pleasure alone ; there is a singular spiritual healthiness with which they seem imbued, -/- the expression of a