Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/178

152 about beans," which he delivered at the City Hall. Her impression is borne out by a chance sentence noted in Alcott's "Concord Days," where he says of Thoreau,—"At Worcester he read a damaging-institution lecture on Beans which has never got to print." A lady, who was his hostess on occasions in Worcester, has expressed in strong analogy her memory of his face and bearing,—"He always reminded me of an eagle, ready to soar to great heights or to swoop down on anything he considered evil." In addition to these personal memories, graciously recalled, there is a report of a lecture in the Worcester Ægis for January 10, 1855. Thoreau's subject was "The Connection between Man's Employment and his Higher Life." The detached extracts in the half-column review have a most familiar sound for readers of Thoreau, for they are largely incorporated in his journal pages edited by Mr. Blake. Among significant sentences are these;—"The farmer is a worthy subject for an epic, when he cultivates at the same time his land and himself, so as to secure the best progress, physical and spiritual." . . . "It is the great art of life to turn the surplus life of the soul into life for the body." . . . "Conversation degenerates into gossip when people resign their inward life."