Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/193

Rh romantic in Brown's deeds and tragic end. In his journal, he reiterated his recognition that his "extracts of the noblest poetry are applicable in part or whole as Brown's elegy, eulogy, or oration." His keen interest and sympathy with this man interfered with all his usual delights; it seems to have disturbed his complacency and shattered his philosophy of serene mind more than any other single life-incident. Even a beautiful sunset failed to win him from contemplation of the wrong, both committed and endured. His active part in the agitation over the famous raid took the form of public utterances of force and eloquence during those seven weeks after the arrest of Brown, in October, 1859. Public interest ran high during this interim. Compromise was no longer possible. Brown was either a hero or a lunatic.

Emerson, no less than Thoreau, allowed his serenity to be displaced by irritation and anxiety during this excitement. He called Brown "that new saint"; he endured calmly the hisses of a Boston mob as he eulogized, with rare feeling, Lovejoy the Abolitionist, whose tragic death in the west had been prophetic of later martyrdom. He eagerly advocated war rather than any compromise which should be "an unjust peace." The three Concord philosophers, turning from nebulous ideals