Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/93

Rh a man of broad scholarship and an enthusiasm which too often became pugnacity. Reflecting the teachings of Godwin, Owen and Bentham, he was ever exploiting some new "dissatisfaction," a quality which caused him much unpopularity at Brook Farm. He found final rest in Catholicism. In "The Convert" he has doubtless analyzed his own character with conceit, yet truth;—"I was and am, in my natural disposition, frank, truthful, straightforward, and earnest; and, therefore, have had, and I doubt not shall carry to the grave with me, the reputation of being reckless, ultra, a well-meaning man, perhaps an able man, but so fond of paradoxes and extremes, that he cannot be relied on, and is more likely to injure than serve the cause he espouses." Biographers have been content to merely mention Thoreau's residence at the home of Brownson but it deserves more emphasis. While his practical, balanced mind would reject many extravagances of thought and scheme, indulged by the elder man, yet the young college boy must have been influenced by the radical ideas, constantly instilled, and their roots may have been subtly operative in Thoreau's later disquieting and extreme views on politics and church.

The class of 1837 included some gifted men, among them Richard Henry Dana, John Weiss, Henry