Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/255

Rh voices, and these had been further likened by the subtle effect of companionship. A Concord friend of both Emerson and Thoreau recently said to me,—"One might as well assert that Thoreau's nose was an imitation of Emerson's," for both had the aquiline Roman features. Unconsciously, Thoreau confided to his journal an incident which throws light upon this resemblance, a passage that has not been quoted in this connection. In the brief account of his part, in 1859, in speeding one of John Brown's accomplices from Concord to Canada, while they were driving to Acton for a train, he recounts the fugitive's urgent request to find Emerson, that he might discuss some plans with him. So eager was the fanatic to gain his end that he once jumped from the carriage but was speedily reinstated by Thoreau who drove quickly forward. Recognizing that the man was partly insane, Thoreau records, "At length when I made a certain remark, he said, I don't know but you are Mr. Emerson; are you? You look somewhat like him.' He said this as much as two or three times." ("Autumn," pp. 381-2.) Thus, in later as in earlier years, the similarity of features was noticed, and the coincidences of thought have been themes for wonder, from their discovery by Helen Thoreau to the present day.