Immanuel Kant has been called the father of modern Transcendentalists: but Socrates and his pupil Plato, so far as we know, were the first of the race.
Neither buzzing bluebottles nor the fall of dynasties disturbed them.
"The soul is everything," said Plato. "The soul knows all things," says Emerson.
In every century a few men have lived who knew the value of plain living and high thinking, and very often the men who reversed the maxim have pa.s.sed them the hemlock.
All those sects known as Primitive Christians represent variations of the idea--Quakers, Mennonites, Communists, Shakers and Dunkards!
A Transcendentalist is a Dukhobortsi with a college education. A Quaker with an artistic bias becomes a Preraphaelite, and lo! we have News from Nowhere, a Dream of John Ball, Merton Abbey, Kelmscott, and half a world is touched and tinted by the simplicity, sterling honesty and genuineness of one man.
George Ripley, Bronson Alcott, and Ralph Waldo Emerson evolved New England Transcendentalism, and very early Henry Th.o.r.eau added a few bars of harmonious discords to the symphony. Horace Greeley once contended in a "Tribune" editorial that Sam Staples, the b.u.m bailiff who locked Th.o.r.eau behind the bars, was an important factor in the New England renaissance, and as such should be immortalized by a statue made of punk, set up on Boston Common for the delectation of bean-eaters. I fear me Horace was a joker.
California quail are quite different from the quail of New York State, and naturalists tell us that this is caused by a difference in environment--quail being a product of soil and climate.
And man is a product of soil and climate--for only in a certain soil can you produce a certain type of man. As a whole, this world is better adapted for the production of fish than genius--most of the really good climate falls on the sea. Christian Scientists are Transcendentalists whose distinguishing point is that they secrete millinery--California quail with rainbow tints and topknots, Balboaic instincts well defined.
Let this fact stand: it was Emerson who made Concord. He saw it first--he was on the ground, and the place was his by right of discovery, the t.i.tle strengthened by the fact that four of his ancestors had been Concord clergymen, and the most excellent and venerable Doctor Ripley, a near kinsman.
Concord and Emerson, as early as Eighteen Hundred Forty, when Emerson was thirty-seven years old, were synonymous. He had defied the traditions of Harvard, been excommunicated by his Alma Mater, published his pantheistic Essay on Nature, and his thin little books and sermons had been placed on the Boston Theological Index Expurgatorius.
Through it all he had remained gentle, smiling, sympathetic, unresentful.
The world can never spare the man who does his work and holds his peace.
Emerson was being lifted up, and souls were being drawn unto him.
In Eighteen Hundred Forty, Bronson Alcott, the American Socrates, with his interesting family, moved to Concord, drawn thither by the magnet of Emerson"s personality. Louisa wore short dresses, and used to pick wild blackberries and sell them to the Emersons and get goodly reward in silver, and kindly smiles, and pats on her brown head by the hand that wrote "Compensation."
Alcott was a great, honest, sincere soul, and a true anarch, for he took his own wherever he saw it. He used to run his wheelbarrow into Emerson"s garden and load it up with potatoes, cabbages or turnips, and once in response to a hint that the vegetables were private property, the old man somewhat petulantly exclaimed, "I need them!--I need them!"
And that was all: anything that any man needed was his by divine right.
And the consistency of Alcott"s philosophy was shown in that he never took anything or any more than he needed, and if he had something that you needed, you were certainly welcome to it. If Alcott helped himself to the thrifty Emerson"s vegetables, both Emerson and Th.o.r.eau helped themselves to Alcott"s ideas.
Once a wagonload of wood broke down in front of Alcott"s house, and the farmer unhitched his horses and went on to the village to procure a new wheel. Before he got back, Alcott had carried every stick of the combustibles into his own wood-shed. "Providence remembers us!" he said.
His faith was sublime.
When all the world reaches the Alcott stage, there will be no need of soldiers, policemen, night-watchmen, or bolts, bars and locks.
In Eighteen Hundred Forty, Nathaniel Hawthorne came to Concord from Salem, where he had resigned his clerkship in the custom-house, that he might devote all his time to literature. He moved into the Old Manse, which had just been vacated by Doctor Ripley, who had gone a-Brook-Farming--the Old Manse where Emerson himself once lived.
Elizabeth Peabody, the talented sister of Hawthorne"s wife, lived at a convenient distance, and to her Hawthorne read most of his ma.n.u.script, for I need not explain that literature is not literature until it is read aloud and reflected back by a sympathetic, discerning mind.
Literature is a collaboration between the reader and the listener.
Margaret Fuller, with her tragic life-story still unwound, lived hard by, and Hawthorne had already worked her up into copy as "Zen.o.bia."
Margaret"s sister Ellen had married Ellery Channing, the closest, warmest friend that Henry Th.o.r.eau ever knew. The gossips arranged a doublewedding, with Henry and Margaret as the other princ.i.p.als; but when interviewed on the theme, Henry had merely shaken his head and said, "In the first place, Margaret Fuller is not fool enough to marry me; and second, I am not fool enough to marry her."
An Irishman who saw Th.o.r.eau in the field making a minute in his notebook took it for granted that he was casting up his wages, and inquired what they came to. It was a peculiar farmhand who cared more for ideas than for wages.
George William Curtis was also a farmhand out on the Lowell Road, but came into town Sat.u.r.day evenings--taking a swim in the river on the way--to attend the philosophical conferences at Emerson"s house, and then went off and made gentle fun of them.
Little Doctor Holmes occasionally drove out from Boston to Concord in a one-horse chaise; James Russell Lowell had walked over from Cambridge; and Longfellow had invited all hands to a birthday fete on his lawn at Cambridge, but Th.o.r.eau had declined for himself, saying he had to look after his pond-lilies and the field-mice on Bedford flats.
Th.o.r.eau, at this time, was a member of Emerson"s household, and in a letter Emerson says, "He has his board for what labor he chooses to do; he is a great benefactor and physician to me, for he is an indefatigable and skilful laborer, besides being a scholar and a poet, and as full of promise as a young apple-tree."
And again, in a letter to Carlyle: "One reader and friend of yours dwells in my household, Henry Th.o.r.eau, a poet whom you may one day be proud of--a n.o.ble, manly youth, full of melodies and invention. We work together day by day in my garden, and I grow well and strong."
To work and talk is the true way to acquire an education. All of our best things are done incidentally--not in cold blood. Hawthorne says in his Journal that most of Emerson"s and Th.o.r.eau"s farming was done leaning on the hoe-handles, while Alcott sat on the fence and explained the Whyness of the Wherefore.
But we must remember that in Hawthorne"s ink-bottle there was a goodly dash of tincture of iron. In his Journal of September First, Eighteen Hundred Forty-two, he writes: "Mr. Th.o.r.eau dined with us yesterday. He is a singular character--a young man with much of wild, original nature still remaining in him; and so far as he is sophisticated, it is in a way and method of his own. He is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and somewhat rustic ways, though his courteous manner corresponds very well with such an exterior. But his ugliness is of an honest character and really becomes him better than beauty." Little did Hawthorne"s guests imagine they were being basted, roasted, or frica.s.seed for the edification of posterity.
Prosperity at this time had just begun to smile on Hawthorne, and among other extravagances in which he indulged was a boat, bought from Th.o.r.eau--made by the hands of this expert Yankee whittler. Hawthorne quotes a little transcendental advice given to him by the maker of the boat: "In paddling a canoe, all you have to do is to will that your boat shall go in any particular direction, and she will immediately take the course, as if imbued with the spirit of the steersman." Hawthorne then adds this sober postscript: "It may be so with you, but it is certainly not so with me."
Admiration for Th.o.r.eau gradually grew very strong with Hawthorne, and he quotes Emerson, who called Th.o.r.eau "the young G.o.d Pan." And this lends much semblance to the statement that Th.o.r.eau served Hawthorne as a model for Donatello, the mysterious wood-sprite in the "Marble Faun."
As to the transformation of Th.o.r.eau himself, one of his cla.s.smates records this:
Meeting Mr. Emerson one day, I inquired if he saw much of my cla.s.smate, Henry D. Th.o.r.eau, who was then living in Concord. "Of Th.o.r.eau?" replied Mr. Emerson, his face lighting up with a smile of enthusiasm. "Oh, yes, we could not do without him. When Carlyle comes to America, I expect to introduce Th.o.r.eau to him as the man of Concord," and I was greatly surprised at these words. They set an estimate on Th.o.r.eau which seemed to be extravagant.... Not long after I happened to meet Th.o.r.eau in Mr. Emerson"s study at Concord--the first time we had come together after leaving college.
I was quite startled by the transformation that had taken place in him. His short figure and general cast of countenance were, of course, unchanged; but in his manners, in the tones of his voice, in his modes of expression, even in the hesitations and pauses of his speech, he had become the counterpart of Mr. Emerson. Th.o.r.eau"s college voice bore no resemblance to Mr. Emerson"s, and was so familiar to my ear that I could have readily identified him by it in the dark. I was so much struck by the change that I took the opportunity, as they sat near together talking, of listening with closed eyes, and I was unable to determine with certainty which was speaking. I do not know to what subtle influences to ascribe it, but after conversing with Mr. Emerson for even a brief time, I always found myself able and inclined to adopt his voice and manner of speaking.
Th.o.r.eau had tried schoolteaching, but he had to give up his position because he would not exercise the birch and ferule. "If the scholars once find out the teacher is not goin" to sting "em up when they need it, that is an end to the skule," said one of the directors, and he spat violently at a fly, ten feet away. The others agreeing with him, Th.o.r.eau was asked to resign.
William Emerson, a brother of Ralph Waldo"s, a prosperous New York merchant, had lured Ralph Waldo"s hired man away from him and taken him down to Staten Island, New York. Here Th.o.r.eau acted as private tutor, and imparted the mysteries of woodcraft to boys who cared more for marbles.
Staten Island was about two hundred miles too far from Concord to suit Th.o.r.eau.
His loneliness in New York City made Concord and the pine-trees of Walden woods seem paradise enow. There is no heart desolation equal to that which can come to one in a throng.
Margaret Fuller was now in New York City, working for Greeley on the editorial staff of the "Tribune." Greeley was so much pleased with Th.o.r.eau that he offered to set him to work as reporter, for Greeley had guessed the truth that the best city reporters are country boys. They observe and hear--all is curious and wonderful to them: by and by they will become blase--sophisticated--that is, blind and deaf.
Greeley was a great talker, and he had a way of getting others to talk also. He got Th.o.r.eau to talking about communal life and life in the woods, and then Horace worked Henry"s words up into copy--for that is the way all good newspaper-writers evolve their original ideas.
Th.o.r.eau was amazed to pick up a number of the daily "Tribune" and find his conversation of the day before, with Greeley, skilfully transformed into a leader.
Fourierism had been the theme--the Phalanstery versus Individual Housekeeping. Greeley had prophesied that the phalanstery, with one kitchen for forty families, instead of forty kitchens for forty families, would soon come about. Greeley"s prophetic vision did not quite antic.i.p.ate the modern apartment-house, which perhaps is a transitional expedient, moving toward the phalanstery, but he quoted Th.o.r.eau by saying, "A woman enslaved by her housekeeping is just as much a chattel as if owned by a man."
This was in Eighteen Hundred Forty-five, and Th.o.r.eau was now twenty-eight years of age. He was homesick for the dim pine-woods with their ceaseless lullaby, the winding and placid river, and the great, ma.s.sive, sullen, self-sufficient boulders of Concord.
He was resolved to follow the example of Brook Farm, and start a community of his own in opposition. His community would be on the sh.o.r.es of Walden Pond, and the only member of the genus h.o.m.o who would be eligible to membership would be himself; the other members would be the birds and squirrels and bees, and the trees would make up the rest.
Brook Farm was a retreat for transcendentalists--a place to meditate, dream and work--a place where one could exist close to Nature, and live a simple, hardy and healthful life.
Th.o.r.eau"s retreat would be the same, with the disadvantage of personal contact eliminated.
It was in March, Eighteen Hundred Forty-five, that Th.o.r.eau began building his shanty. The spot was in a dense woods, on a hillside that gently sloped down to the clear, cold, deep water of Walden Pond. The land belonged to Emerson, who obligingly gave Th.o.r.eau the use of it, rent free, with no conditions. Alcott helped in the carpenter work, and discussed betimes of the Wherefore, and when it came to the raising, a couple of neighboring farmers were hailed and pressed into service. The cabin was twelve by fifteen, and cost--furnished--the sum of twenty-eight dollars, good money, not counting labor, which Th.o.r.eau did not calculate as worth anything, since he had had the fun of the thing--something for which men often pay high.
The furniture consisted of a table, a chair, and a bed, all made by the owner. For bedclothes and dishes the Emerson household was put under contribution. On the door was a latch, but no lock.