PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN ALMOST MENTIONED IN WALDEN : QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS (HORACE) Although Professor Norman Foerster pointed out that “Thoreau without his classical background would simply not have been Thoreau,” precious few of us have ever attempted to approach Thoreau’s writings from this perspective. The reason for our neglect is apparent: almost all of us have by now become utterly lacking in this sort of scholarly background. Even the best educated among us fall ridiculously short when measured by the standards of “a real classical education,” of the sort which Thoreau had been able to piece together in the 19th Century. Well, can anything now be done about this? It would be my contention that we are poised to recover, in some part, due to the intrusion of this welcome modern electronic technology, the internet, some of the benefits of the old-style classical education. All we need to do is to begin to carefully track Thoreau through his classical education —by doing this we will be able to recreate some of this sort of education —sorely needed, in ourselves. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
Transcript
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN
ALMOST MENTIONED IN WALDEN:
QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS (HORACE)
Although Professor Norman Foerster pointed out that “Thoreauwithout his classical background would simply not have beenThoreau,” precious few of us have ever attempted to approachThoreau’s writings from this perspective. The reason for ourneglect is apparent: almost all of us have by now become utterlylacking in this sort of scholarly background. Even the besteducated among us fall ridiculously short when measured by thestandards of “a real classical education,” of the sort whichThoreau had been able to piece together in the 19th Century. Well, can anything now be done about this?It would be my contention that we are poised to recover, in somepart, due to the intrusion of this welcome modern electronictechnology, the internet, some of the benefits of the old-styleclassical education. All we need to do is to begin to carefullytrack Thoreau through his classical education —by doing this wewill be able to recreate some of this sort of education —sorelyneeded, in ourselves.
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
A WEEK: I know of no studies so composing as those of the classicalscholar. When we have sat down to them, life seems as still andserene as if it were very far off, and I believe it is nothabitually seen from any common platform so truly andunexaggerated as in the light of literature. In serene hours wecontemplate the tour of the Greek and Latin authors with morepleasure than the traveller does the fairest scenery of Greece orItaly. Where shall we find a more refined society? That highwaydown from Homer and Hesiod to Horace and Juvenal is moreattractive than the Appian. Reading the classics, or conversingwith those old Greeks and Latins in their surviving works, is likewalking amid the stars and constellations, a high and by wayserene to travel. Indeed, the true scholar will be not a littleof an astronomer in his habits. Distracting cares will not beallowed to obstruct the field of his vision, for the higherregions of literature, like astronomy, are above storm anddarkness.
WALDEN: I think that I love society as much as most, and am readyenough to fasten myself like a blood-sucker for the time to anyfull-blooded man that comes in my way. I am naturally no hermit,but might possibly sit out the sturdiest frequenter of the bar-room, if my business called me thither.I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two forfriendship, three for society. When visitors came in larger andunexpected numbers there was but the third chair for them all,but they generally economized the room by standing up. It issurprising how many great men and women a small house willcontain. I have had twenty-five or thirty souls, with theirbodies, at once under my roof, and yet we often parted withoutbeing aware that we had come very near to one another. Many ofour houses, both public and private, with their almostinnumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars forthe storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to meextravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast andmagnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infestthem. I am surprised when the herald blows his summons before someTremont or Astor or Middlesex House, to see come creeping out overthe piazza for all inhabitants a ridiculous mouse, which soonagain slinks into some hole in the pavement.
December 8: Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born in a small town in the border region between Apulia and Lucania (his home town was called at that time Venusia but now is known as Venosa). He was a born-free son of a manumitted slave. His father had a small farm, although later the family would relocate to Rome and the father would find work as a coactor (a middleman at auctions, who paid off the seller and then collected from the buyer, typically receiving in compensation for this service 1% of the price from each of them). Horace, as we now know him, would during the reign of the Emperor Augustus Caesar be obtaining recognition as the leading Roman lyric poet. The freedman father would be able to invest considerably in education for his son, in Rome during childhood, and then by sending the young man to Athens for the study of the Greek language, and philosophy. The son would, in one of his surviving satires (1.6.65-92), express great appreciation for this:
If my character is flawed by a few minor faults, but is otherwisedecent and moral, if you can point out only a few scatteredblemishes on an otherwise immaculate surface, if no one canaccuse me of greed, or of prurience, or of profligacy, if I livea virtuous life, free of defilement (pardon, for a moment, myself-praise), and if I am to my friends a good friend, it is myfather who deserves all the credit for this ... he deserves fromme unstinting gratitude and praise. I could never be ashamed ofsuch a father nor do I feel any need, as many people do, toapologize for being a freedman’s son.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
65 BCE
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of Walden: Quintus Horatius Flaccus
October 23: In a battle at Philippi, the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian destroyed the Romans proscribed for having assassinated Julius Caesar, and after this defeat C. Cassius Longinus committed suicide.
Horace had served as a staff officer (tribunus militum) for Brutus during this battle. He fled and, when an amnesty was declared, found that although his estate had been forfeited enough funds remained for him to purchase a lifetime sinecure as a scriba quaestorius at the Treasury. He would join a literary circle that included Virgil and Lucius Varius Rufus and get himself introduced to Maecenas, a friend and confidant of Augustus, who would become his patron and close friend while he devoted himself to his poetry. Maecenas would present him with an estate near Tibur in the Sabine Hills (our Tivoli), which upon his death he would bequeath to the emperor.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD?— NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES.
LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
42 BCE
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of Walden: Quintus Horatius Flaccus
November 27: A few months after the death of his friend Maecenas, Horace died in Rome at the age of 57. Since he had no heirs and his friend Maecenas was already deceased, he left his little farm to his friend Augustus Caesar, to be used for imperial needs. (This farm may still be visited.)
Queen Elizabeth was presented with presumably the 1st pair of black silk stockings made in the West.1
(Although this English queen can be fitly acclaimed as the 1st lady to wear sexy black silk stockings of local manufacture, she has also been acclaimed as the 1st to translate Horace’s ARS POETICA into English verse. The fact of that matter, however, is that although this queen of England did prepare a full translation into English of the works of Boethius, we cannot actually say that she prepared the ARS POETICA because only fragments of such an effort still exist — it is possible that she didn’t get very far into this project and it is likely that she wouldn’t have wanted anyone to see what she had managed to complete.)
Jasper Heywood, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (Alsolne Colledge in Oxenforde), translated the Thyestes, the 2d of three of the ten tragedies of Seneca the Younger that he would translate into English verse. The play had been written at some time during the 1st Century CE. This was the initial rendering of the material into English, and was not a straightforward translation. Heywood not only took liberties with the Latin text but also introduced material of his own creation.
John Heywood’s “The Play of the Wether, a new and mery interlude of all maner of Wethers” was printed by A. Kytson, his “Play called the foure PP; a newe and a very mery interlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler” was printed by W. Copland, and his A FOURTH HUNDRED OF EPYGRAMS was printed by T. Berthelet.
1560
1. Of course, instantly one wonders when presented with such Eurocentric factoids, for how many centuries such articles of apparel had been being fashioned in the East!
At age 15, Thomas De Quincey’s translation from Horace’s TWENTY-SECOND ODE won 3d prize in a contest and was published in The Monthly Preceptor. Accidentally, he encountered King George III in the Frogmore gardens near Windsor Castle. During his summer holiday he went to Ireland. He was sent to the Manchester Grammar School because in that establishment he might after studying for 36 months qualify for a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford (he would not, however, complete this agenda, for after 19 months he would run away in an attempt to make contact with William Wordsworth).
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MINDYOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
1800
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of Walden: Quintus Horatius Flaccus
Republication of Dr. Alexander Adam’s 1772 textbook as THE RUDIMENTS OF LATIN AND ENGLISH GRAMMAR; DESIGNED TO FACILITATE THE STUDY OF BOTH LANGUAGES, BY CONNECTING THEM TOGETHER ... WITH A METRICAL KEY TO THE ODES OF HORACE. This was the 2d New-York edition (E. Duyckinck and G. Long) and derived from the 9th English edition. This textbook would be used by David Henry Thoreau during his formal education.
Charles Butler’s BOOK OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. Also, his THE LIFE OF ERASMUS; WITH HISTORICAL REMARKS ON THE STATE OF LITERATURE BETWEEN THE 10TH AND 16TH CENTURIES (London: J. Murray).
(This LIFE would be consulted by David Henry Thoreau in 1833.)
Publication in London, also, of the four volumes of David Henry’s required textbooks, that would eventually be found in his personal library, Horace’s QUINTI HORATII FLACCI OPERA OMNIA EX EDITIONE J C ZEUNII CUM NOTIS ET INTERPRETATIONE IN USUM DELPHINI VARIIS LECTIONIBUS NOTIS VARIORUM RECENSU EDITIONUM ET CODICUM ET INDICE LOCUPLETISSIMO ACCURATE RECENSITI. This variorum edition contains all the then-known variants of the texts, with notes by Johann Carl Zeune (1736-1788). It had been part of a large series of Latin classics prepared originally for Louis, le Grand Dauphin, in the 17th century, and was republished in London by Abraham John Valpy (1787-1854).
Publication of one of David Henry Thoreau’s college textbooks, Horace’s QUINTI HORATII FLACCI OPERA. ACCEDUNT CLAVIS METRICA ET NOTÆ ANGLICÆ JUVENTUTI ACCOMODATÆ. CURA B.A. GOULD, A.M. EDITIO EMENDATIOR. (Bostoniæ: sumptibus Hilliard, Gray et Soc.).2
In place of the edition then used at Harvard College, Cicero’s DE OFFICIIS, LIBRI TRES. EX EDITIONIBUS OLIVETI ET ERNESTI (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Brown, Shattuck & Co., 1833), I will offer an electronic text that happens to be available from Google Books that must be reasonably close to that edition:
Also, in place of the unknown edition of Cicero’s DE RE PUBLICA used by college student Thoreau, I would propose using the electronic text that happens to be available from Google Books:
Also, in place of the unknown edition of Cicero’s DE ORATORE used by college student Thoreau, I would propose accessing the edition now made available on the internet by Project Gutenberg:
1833
2. Thoreau’s copy is now in Special Collections in the basement of the Concord Free Public Library.
December 31, Sunday: In his journal on this day Henry Thoreau provided us with some clue as to the nature of his classical education by the making of an allusion to a one-liner from Horace’s SATIRES, “Invenias etiam disiecti membra poetae.” What Thoreau writes in his journal is “We go picking up from year to year and laying side by side the disjecta membra of truth.” (Although it is true that one might nowadays pick up a phrase such as “disjecta membra” from anywhere in the general culture, such as out of a TV sitcom, it is clear from numerous other such references that in Thoreau’s 19th-Century context he had been obtaining these materials in the course of his formal education and that he had acquired considerable familiarity with Horace’s body of work.)
Thoreau had occasion to reflect on, and to recycle, a problem from his algebra textbook at the Concord Academy, Professor John Farrar of Harvard College’s AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ELEMENTS OF ALGEBRA, DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF THOSE WHO ARE ACQUAINTED ONLY WITH THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF ARITHMETIC / SELECTED FROM THE ALGEBRA OF EULER (3d ed. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1828), some of the examples of which he had calculated as a student of ten or eleven years of age:3
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the leastparticle of truth colors our whole life. It is never isolated,or simply added as treasures to our stock. When any real progressis made, we unlearn and learn anew what we thought we knewbefore. We go picking up from year to year and laying side byside the disjecta membra of truth, as he who picked up one byone a row of a hundred stones, and returned with each separatelyto his basket.
1837
3. Thoreau also had in his personal library Professor Farrar’s 1825 textbook AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON
MECHANICS, his 1826 textbooks ELEMENTS OF ELECTRICITY, MAGNETISM, AND ELECTROMAGNETISM and AN
EXPERIMENTAL TREATISE ON OPTICS, his 1827 textbook AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON ASTRONOMY, and his1834 translation of Professor Sylvestre François Lacroix’s AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON ARITHMETIC,all of which were required texts either at the Concord Academy or at Harvard.
Christian P. Grueber had the following to offer in his 1853 PhD dissertation “The Education of Henry Tho-reau, Harvard 1833-1837”: “John Farrar, the compiler of the four books which were the basis of the coursein natural philosophy, rightly calls each of them a treatise. In this area of ‘mixed mathematics,’ the studentbegan with mechanics, and then proceeded through electricity, optics, and finally astronomy. If Thoreau’sgrades are any indication of attitude, the theoretical approach to the mixed mathematics was not to his liking.In calculus, the last of the pure mathematics, Thoreau’s grades averaged 6.7, not far below the 6.9 average hewas maintaining in Greek and for which he merited the honor of an exhibition part. But in mechanics, forwhich he supposedly had a natural aptitude and some practice in the family business, his grades dropped to avery mediocre 4.9.” (Unfortunately, Dr. Grueber tells us nothing about Thoreau’s classroom performance inregard to Farrar’s Lacroix’s ARITHMETIC.)
December: Waldo Emerson to his journal, in a passage which may explain not only the title of the Transcendentalist periodical THE DIAL, but also something about the nature of the Transcendentalist movement as a whole:
The brave man’s step corresponded to the movement of the heavenly bodies. The brave man’s universal tunefulness compelled discord into concord everywhere. This would become, in A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, the hero’s heart beating “in unison with the pulse of Nature,” as he “steps to the measure of the universe.”
1839
I say how the world looks to me without reference to Blair’s Rhetoric or Johnson’s Lives. And I call my thoughts The Present Age, because I use no will in the matter, but honestly record such impressions as things make. So transform I myself into a Dial, and my shadow will tell where the sun is.
A WEEK: The sadness is ours. The Indian poet Calidas says in theSacontala: “Perhaps the sadness of men on seeing beautiful formsand hearing sweet music arises from some faint remembrance of pastjoys, and the traces of connections in a former state ofexistence.” As polishing expresses the vein in marble, and grainin wood, so music brings out what of heroic lurks anywhere.The hero is the sole patron of music. That harmony which existsnaturally between the hero’s moods and the universe the soldierwould fain imitate with drum and trumpet. When we are in healthall sounds fife and drum for us; we hear the notes of music inthe air, or catch its echoes dying away when we awake in the dawn.Marching is when the pulse of the hero beats in unison withthe pulse of Nature, and he steps to the measure of the universe;then there is true courage and invincible strength.
In WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS, this would become the injunction that one should step to the music which one hears, “however measured or far away.”
WALDEN: Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, andin such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace withhis companions, perhaps it is because he hears a differentdrummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, howevermeasured or far away. It is not important that he should matureas soon as an apple-tree or an oak. Shall he turn his spring intosummer? If the condition of things which we were made for is notyet, what were any reality which we can substitute? We will notbe shipwrecked on a vain reality. Shall we with pains erect aheaven of blue glass over ourselves, though when it is done weshall be sure to gaze still at the true ethereal heaven far above,as if the former were not?
(Some may consider that I am here deviating from my identification of the distant, different drummer as the ruffed grouse Bonasa umbellus, but I am not. You will note that those who provide a militaristic interpretation of this most famous citation from WALDEN commonly reduce “step” to “march,” as if they were insisting that
Henry Thoreau remain with his young-mannish military preoccupation and resisting the implications of “step” as in “dance step.” The advantage I see to the “drumming of the ruffed grouse in the woods” interpretation is
that it resists this simplification of the metaphor to a merely military signification.)
December: Bravery deals not so much in resolute action, as in healthy and assured rest. Its palmy stateis a staying at home, and compelling alliance in all directions.The brave man never heareth the din of war; he is trustful and unsuspecting, so observant of the least trait ofgood or beautiful that, if you turn toward him the dark side of anything, he will still see only the bright.
One moment of serene and confident life is more glorious than a whole campaign of daring. We should be readyfor all issues, not daring to die but daring to live. To the brave even danger is an ally.
In their unconscious daily life all are braver than they know. Man slumbers and wakes in his twilight with theconfidence of noonday; he is not palsified nor struck dumb by the inexplicable riddle of the universe. A meresurveyor’s report or clause in a preëmption bill contains matter of quite extraneous interest, of a subdued butconfident tone, evincing such a steadiness in the writer as would have done wonders at Bunker’s Hill orMarathon. Where there is the collected eye, there will not fail the effective hand;
One tap of the drum sets the political and moral harmonies all ajar. His ethics may well bear comparison withthe priest’s.… When Bravery first grew afraid and went to war, it took music along with it.… The brave warriormust have harmony if not melody at any sacrifice.… All sounds, and more than all silence, do fife and drum forus.…To the sensitive soul, The universe has its own fixed measure, which is its measure also, and as a regular pulseis inseparable from a healthy body, so is its healthiness dependent on the regularity of its rhythm. In all soundsthe soul recognizes its own rhythm, and seeks to express its sympathy by a correspondent movement of thelimbs. When the body marches to the measure of the soul, then is true courage and invincible strength. The coward would reduce this thrilling sphere music to a universal wail — this melodious chant to a nasal cant.He thinks to conciliate all hostile influences by compelling his neighborhood into a partial concord withhimself, but his music is no better than a jingle which is akin to a jar — jars regularly recurring.… But the brave man, without drum or trumpet, compels concord every where every where by the universality andtunefulness of his soul.“Take a metallic plate” says Coleridge, “and strew sand on it; sound a harmonic chord over the sand, and thegrains will whirl about in circles, and other geometrical figures, all, as it were, depending on some pointrelatively at rest. Sound a discord, and every grain will whisk about without any order at all, in no figures, and
with no points of rest.” The brave man is such a point of relative rest, over which the soul sounds ever aharmonic chord.
December: The Romans “made Fortune surname to Fortitude,” for fortitude is that alchemy that turnsall things to good fortune. The man of fortitude, whom the Latins called fortis, is no other than that lucky personwhom fors favors, or vir summae fortis. If we will, every bark may “carry Cæsar and Cæsar’s fortune.” Thebrave man stays at home. For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself; he was an arrant coward who firstmade shields of brass. For armor of proof, mea virtute me involvo (I wrap myself in my virtue);4
“Tumble me down, and I will sitUpon my ruins, smiling yet.”5
The bravest deed, which for the most part is left quite out of history, which alone wants the staleness of a deeddone and the uncertainty of a deed doing, is the life of a great man. To perform exploits is to be temporarilybold, as becomes a courage that ebbs and flows, the soul quite vanquished by its own deed subsiding intoindifference and cowardice: but the exploit of a brave life consists in its momentary completeness.
By dint of wind and stringed instruments the coward endeavours to put the best face on the matter — whistlesto keep his courage up.
December: It was a conceit of Plutarch, accounting for the preferences given to signs observed on theleft hand, that men may have thought “things terrestrial and mortal directly over against heavenly and divinethings, and do conjecture that the things which to us are on the left hand, the gods send down from their righthand.” If we are not blind, we shall see how a right hand is stretched over all, as well the unlucky as lucky, andthat the ordering soul is only right-handed, distributing with one palm all our fates.
Men have made war from a deeper instinct than peace. War is but the compelling of peace.When the world is declared under martial law, every Esau retakes his birthright, and what there is in him doesnot fail to appear. He wipes off all old scores and commences a new account. The world is interested to knowhow any soul will demean itself in so novel a position. But when war too, like commerce and husbandry, getsto be a routine, and men go about it as indented apprentices, the hero degenerates into a marine, and the standingarmy into a standing jest.
4. This is a reference to Horace that Thoreau would insert into his “The Service,” rejected during his lifetime but eventually to be published in 1902:
Thoreau had the following volumes of Horace’s variorum writings in his personal library:
December: Music is either a sedative or a tonic to the soul. I read that “Plato thinks the gods nevergave men music, the science of melody and harmony, for mere delectation or to tickle the ear; but that thediscordant parts of the circulations and beauteous fabric of the soul, and that of it that roves about the body, andmany times, for want of tune and air, breaks forth into many extravagances and excesses, might be sweetlyrecalled and artfully wound up to their former consent and agreement.’”
By dint of wind and stringed instruments the coward endeavors to put the best face on the matter, –whistles tokeep his courage up.
There are some brave traits related by Plutarch; e. g.: “Homer acquaints us how Ajax, being to engage in asingle combat with Hector, bade the Grecians pray to the gods for him; and while they were at their devotions,he was putting on his armor.”On another occasion, a storm arises, “which as soon as the pilot sees, he falls to his prayers, and invokes histutelar dæmons, but neglects not in the meantime to hold to the rudder and let down the main yard.”6
As portrayed in the Nuremberg _Liber Chronicarum_ of 1493, text by Hartmann Schedel with artwork by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.
THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: HORACE
HDT WHAT? INDEX
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN
January 21, Tuesday: Henry Thoreau wrote at length to his sister Helen Louisa Thoreau, teaching in nearby Roxbury, and to his sister Sophia Elizabeth Thoreau, who was assisting her, quoting the opening lines, slightly modified, of Horace’s ODES I 9. He deployed the phrase laetiore plectro (which would be a slight alteration of ODES II.1.40’s leviore plectro, and then deployed three verses of ODES I 4, and then lifted the phrase desipere in loco from ARS POETICA.7
Concordiae, Dec. Kal. Feb. AD. MDCCCXL.Care Soror,Est magnus acervus nivis ad limina, et frigus intolerabile intus. Coelum ipsum ruit, credo,et terram operit. Sero stratum linquo et maturerepeto; in fenestris multa pruina prospectum absumit,et hic miser scribo, non currente calamo, nam digiti mentesque torpescunt. Canerem cum Horatio, si vox non faucibus haeserit— “Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum Nawshawtuct, nec jam sustineant onusSilvae laborantes, geluque
6. Waldo Emerson had in his library the 1822 edition in 8 volumes of PLUTARCH’S LIVES. TR. FROM THE ORIGINAL GREEK, WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND A LIFE OF PLUTARCH BY JOHN LANGHORNE AND WILLIAM LANGHORNE, NEW ED., WITH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS... (New York: Samuel Campbell). Henry Thoreau himself had but a one-volume abridgment, perhaps the following one:
Thoreau also had available to him in Emerson’s library the 5-volume 1718 edition of PLUTARCH’S MORALS: TRANſLATED FROM THE GREEK BY SEVERAL HANDS, THE FIFTH EDITION CORRECTED AND AMENDED (London: Printed for William Taylor, at the Ship in Paternoſter-Row).
1840
7. Here’s an interesting factoid which I have picked up out of Sarah Gertrude Pomeroy’s derivative treatise LITTLE-KNOWN SISTERS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN (Boston MA: D. Estes & Co., 1912): During the stay of the Thoreau sisters Helen and Sophia in Roxbury, they joined the Episcopal Church. I don’t know from what source Pomeroy derived this information or what its actual import might be, but judging from the bibliography of this book, she must have derived it from some early biographical effort the primary effort of which was in regard to Henry. The interpretation she placed on this factoid is an utterly unnecessary and tendentious one, that although the Thoreau sisters were able to tolerate their educated brother’s sort of religiosity they very much disapproved of it.
Flumina constiterint acuto? Dissolve frigus, ligna super focoLarge reponens; etc.” Sed olim, Musa mutata, et laetiore plectro,— “neque jam stabulis gaudet pecus, aut arator igni, Nec prata canis albicant pruinis, Jam Cytherea choros ducit Venus, imminente luna;”
Quum turdus ferrugineus ver reduxerit,tu, spero, linques curas scholasticas, et negotio re-ligato, desipere in loco audebis, aut mecum inter
Page 2inter sylvas, aut super scopulos Pulchri-Portus, aut in cymba super lacum Waldensem, mulcens fluctus manu, aut speciem miratus sub undas. Bulwerius est mihi nomen incognitum, unus ex ignobil[e] vulgo, nec refutandus nec laudandus. Certe alicui nonnullam honorem habeo qui insanabile cacoethe scribendi teneatur. Species flagrantis Lexingtonis non somnia deturbat?At non Vulcanum Neptunumque culpemus cum superstitioso grege. Natura curat animalculis aeque ac hominibus; cum serena, tum procellosa amica est. Si amas historiam et fortia facta heroumnon depone Rollin, precor, ne Clio offendas nunc, nec illa det veniam olim. Quos libros Latinos legis? legis, inquam, non studis.Beatus qui potest suos libellos tractare et saepe perlegere sine metu domini urgentis! ab otioinjurioso procul est; suos amicos et vocare et dimittere quandocunque velit potest. Bonus liber opus est nobilissimum hominis! Hinc ratio non modo cur legeres sed cur tu quoque scriberes. Nec lectores carent; ego sum. Si nonlibrum meditaris, libellum certe. Nihil posteris
Page 3proderit te spirasse et vitam nunc leniter nuncaspere egisse, sed cogitasse praecipue et scripsisse. Vereor ne tibi pertaesum hujus epistolae sit; necnon alma lux caret, “Majoresque ca[d]unt altis de montibus umbrae.” Quamobrem vale, imo valete, et
requiescatis placide, Sorores.H.D. Thoreaus. [M]emento Scribere! __________________________________________________Care Sophia,Samuel Niger crebris aegrota tionibus, quae agilitatem et aequum animum abstulere, obnoxius est; iis temporibus ad cellam descendit et [m]
Page 4Adolescentula E. White apud pagum paulisper moratur. Memento scribere intra duas hebdomedas.Te valere desiderium est Tui Matris C. Thoreaus. Amanuense, H.D.T.Postmark: CONCORDJAN[ 1][ s]Address: Ad Helenam L. ThoreauRoxburyMass.Postage: 6
January 24, Tuesday: Henry Thoreau wrote from Concord to Waldo Emerson, who was lecturing in Philadelphia and staying with his friend, the Reverend William Henry Furness, telling about his having met John L. O’Sullivan at a free lunch at Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house.
Concord Jan 24th 1843Dear Friend,The best way to correcta mistake is to make it right. Ihad not spoken of writing to you, butas you say you are about to writeto me when you get my letter, I makehaste on my part in order to get yoursthe sooner. I dont well know whatto say to earn the forthcoming epistle — unless that Edith takes rapid stridesin the arts and sciences — as music andnatural history — as well as over the carpet — that she says “papa” less and lessabstractedly every day, looking in myface — which may sound like a Ranz-des Vaches to yourself — and Ellen de-clares every morning that “Papa maycome home to[-]night” — and by and byit will have changed to such positive streetnews as that “Papa came homelarks night.” Elizabeth Hoar stillflits about these clearings, and Imeet her here and there, and in all housesbut her own, but as if I were not the
1843
Mr. O’Sullivan was here three days. I met him at the Atheneum,and went to Hawthornes to tea with him He expressed a great dealof interest in your poems, and wished me to give him a list ofthem, which I did; he saying he did not know but he should noticethem. He is a rather puny looking man, and did not strike me.We had nothing to say to one another, and therefore we said agreat deal. He however made a point of asking me to write for hisReview, which I shall be glad to do. He is at any rate one of thenot-bad — but does not by any means take you by storm — no —nor by calm — which is the best way. He expects to see you in N.Y.After tea I carried him and H. to the Lyceum.
less of her family for all that, I havemade slight acquaintance also with{written perpendicular to text in left margin:failed to render even those slight services of the hand which wouldhave been for a sign at least, and by the fault of my nature have failedof many better and higher services. But I will not trouble you with this — but for once thank you as well as HeavenYr friendH. D. T.}
Page 2one Mrs Lidian Emerson, who almostpersuades me to be a Christian, butI fear I as often relapse into Heathenism.Mr. O’Sullivan was here threedays. I met him at the Atheneum, andwent to Hawthornes to tea with himHe expressed a great deal of interest inyour poems, and wished me to give him alist of them, which I did; he sayinghe did not know but he should noticethem. He is a rather puny looking man,and did not strike me. We had nothingto say to one another, and therefore wesaid a great deal. He however made a point of asking me to write for his Review,which I shall be glad to do. He is at anyrate one of the not-bad — but doesnot by any means take you by storm — no — nor by calm — which is the best way.He expects to see you in N.Y. After teaI carried him and H. to the Lyceum.Mr Alcott has not altered muchsince you left — I think you will find himmuch the same sort of person. With Mr LaneI have had one regular chat — [_] la [George] Minot — which of course was greatly to our mutualgrati- and edi-fication — but as twoor three as regular conversations have takenplace since, I fear there may have been a pre-
Page 3cession of the equinoxes. Mr Wrightaccording to the last accounts is in Lynn
with uncertain aims and prospects — maturingslowly perhaps. — as indeed are all of us.I suppose they have told you hownear Mr A- went to the jail — but Ican add a good anecdote to the rest. WhenStaples came to collect Mrs Ward’s taxes,My sister Helen asked him what hethought Mr A. meant — what his ideawas — and he answered “I vum — I believeit was nothing but principle — for I neverheard a man talk honester.” — There wasa lecture on Peace by a Mr Spear(ought he not to be beaten into aploughshare) the same evening, and as the(L & A) [gentlemen] dined at our house while the^ matter was in suspense — that is whilethe constable was waiting for his receiptfrom the jailer — we there settled it thatwe — that is Lane and myself perhaps,should agitate the state while Winkel-ried lay in durance. But when overthe audience I saw our hero’s head movingin the free air of the Universalist Church,my fire all went out — and the state was safeas far as I was concerned, but Lane itseems, had cogitated and even written onthe matter in the afternoon — and so, out
Page 4of courtesy taking his point of departure fromthe Spear-man’s lecture, he drove gracefullyin medias res — and gave the affair avery good setting out — but to spoil all,our martyr very characteristically, but asartists would say in bad taste, brought upthe rear with a “My Prisons” which made us forget
{address and text written perpendicular to text in center of page:
[Postmark:] CONCORD JAN 24 MAS.[Return address:] H. D. ThoreauJany. 1843 — [this written by Sanborn][Postage:] 18 3/4 [this not written by HDT][Address:] Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have been your pensioner for nearlytwo years and still left free as underthe sky — It has been as free a giftas the sun or the summer — thoughI have sometimes molested you with mymean acceptance of it — I who have}Silvio Pellico himself. — The 50 dollars have beenrecd. Mr Lane wishes me to ask you to see ifthere is anything for him in the N.Y. office, and pay thecharges — Will you tell me what to do withMr Parker who was to lectureee Feb. 15 th? MrsE. says that my letter is instead of one from her.At the end of this strange letter I will not writewhat alone I had to say to thank you and MrsEmerson for your long kindness to me — It wouldbe more ungrateful than my constant thought
Henry Thoreau also wrote on this day to Mrs. Lucy Jackson Brown, although possibly he did not post his letter.
To Mrs. L.C.B.Concord Jan 24th 1843
Dear Friend,The other day I wrote youa letter to go in Mrs Emerson’s bundle,but as it seemed unworthy, I did notsend it, and now to atone for that,I am agoing to send this, whether itbe worthy or not — I will not ventureupon news, for, as all the householdare gone to bed, — I cannot learn whathas been told you. Do you readany noble verses now a days? — or do not verses still seem noble? — For my own part, they have beenthe only things I remembered, — orthat which occasioned them, — when all things else were blurred anddefaced. All things have put on
mourning but they; — for the elegyitself is some victorious melody andjoy escaping from the wreck.It is a relief to read som[e] true bookwherein all are equally dead — equallyalive. I think the best parts of
Page 2Shakspeare [would] only be enhanced bythe most thrilling and affecting events.I have found it so. And they so[much] the more, as they are notintended for consolation.Do you think of coming to Concordagain? — I shall be glad to see you — I should be glad to know that Icould see you when I would.We always seem to be living just on thebrink of a pure and lofty intercourse,which would make the ills and trivialnessof life ridiculous. After each littleinterval, though it be but for thenight, we are prepared to meet eachother as gods and goddesses. — I seemed to have lodged all mydays with one or two persons, and livedupon expectation, — as if the budwould surely blossom; — and so I amcontent to live.What means the fact — which isso common — so universal — thatsome soul that has lost all hopefor itself can inspire in another
Page 3listening soul an infinite confidencein that it, even while it is expressingits despair —?I am very happy in my presentenvironment — though actually meanenough myself, and so, of course,all around me; — yet, I am sure,we for the most part, are transfiguredto one another[— and] are that
to the other which we aspire tobe ourselves. The longest courseof mean and trivial intercourse[may] not prevent my practisingthis divine courtesy to my companion.Notwithstanding all I hear aboutbrooms and scouring and taxes andhouse keeping, — I am constrained tolive a strangely mixed life — as ifeven Valhalla might have its kitchen.We are all of us Apollo’s servingsome Admetus.I think I must have somemuses in my pay that I knownot of — for certain musical wishes of
Page 4mine are answered as soon as as a en-tertained — Last summer I went toHawthorne’s suddenly for the expre[ss]purpose of borrowing his music box, [and]almost immediately Mrs. H proposedto lend it to me. The other day Isaid I must go to Mrs Barrett’s{address written perpendicular to text in center of page:Mrs. Lucy C. BrownPlymouthMass.}to hear hers — and lo straightway RichardFuller sent me one for a present fromCambridge. It is a very good one. I shouldlike to have you hear it. I shallnot have to employ you to borrow forme now. Good night.from [y]our [a]ffectionate friend H.D.T.
March: Henry Thoreau recorded in his journal a marginal entry he had noticed while studying Benzo’s HISTORY OF THE WEST INDIES, coelum non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt.8 Four days later, in a criticism of John Evelyn, he made use of the term “sesquipedalian words.”9
1853
8. Those with the benefit of the classical education would have recognized these as from the writings of Horace. Those who have not had the benefit of the classical education may now resort to the internet.9. It would be of interest to know whether Thoreau ever noticed that John Evelyn’s diary was not actually a diary in the true sense of the word, as he had been in the habit (as his father had before him) of going back and “enhancing” previous entries.
March 28, Tuesday: In the afternoon Henry Thoreau walked to White Pond. And, when he picked up the mail, there was the nicest surprise: “Got first proof of ‘Walden’.”10
In the chapter “Visitors” the author had deployed the phrase “a ridiculous mouse.”11 Although this can be found elsewhere in classical literature, for instance in the writings of Athenaeus, those with that sort of education would have recognized it most readily as a reference to Horace’s ARS POETICA, 139, “Mountains will labor, to bring forth a ridiculous mouse.”
We need not take this to be a reference to the labor of producing this magnificent book since by coincidence on this very day the Allies (Great Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia) were in the process of declaring war upon Russia, with their objective being the destruction of the Russian naval base at Sevastopol — and with the benefit of our historical hindsight we now know how very well that effort was going to proceed!
March 28. P. M. — To White Pond. Coldest day for a month or more, — severe as almost any in thewinter. Saw this afternoon either a snipe or a woodcock; it appeared rather small for the last. Pond opening onthe northeast. A flock of hyemalis drifting from a wood over a field incessantly for four or five minutes, —thousands of them, notwithstanding the cold. The fox-colored sparrow sings sweetly also. Saw a small slate-colored hawk, with wings transversely mottled beneath, — probably the sharp-shinned hawk. Got first proof of“Walden.”
1854
10. Thoreau would not finish with his editing of this first proof until May.11. Those with the benefit of the classical education would have received this as a reference to Horace.
TIMELINE OF WALDEN
PEOPLE OFWALDEN
WALDEN: I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two forfriendship, three for society. When visitors came in larger andunexpected numbers there was but the third chair for them all,but they generally economized the room by standing up. It issurprising how many great men and women a small house willcontain. I have had twenty-five or thirty souls, with theirbodies, at once under my roof, and yet we often parted withoutbeing aware that we had come very near to one another. Many ofour houses, both public and private, with their almostinnumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars forthe storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to meextravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast andmagnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infestthem. I am surprised when the herald blows his summons before someTremont or Astor or Middlesex House, to see come creeping out overthe piazza for all inhabitants a ridiculous mouse, which soonagain slinks into some hole in the pavement.
April 10, Friday: Henry Thoreau noticed among the decorations in Friend Daniel Ricketson’s shanty a wall-motto from Horace’s ODES. We note that although he jotted down several such conceits, this stands out as the only one for which it was unnecessary to also register the name of an author.
April 10: D.R.’s Shanty is about half a dozen rods S.W. of his house (which may be one hundred rodsfrom the road), nearly between his house and barn, is 12 x 14 feet, with 7 feet posts, with common pent roof. Inbuilding it he directed the carpenter to use western boards and timbers, though some eastern studs (spruce?)were inserted. He had already occupied a smaller shanty at “Woodlee,” about a mile S. The roof is shingled, andthe sides made of matched boards, and painted a light clay color, with chocolate (?) colored blinds. Within, it isnot plastered, and is open to the roof, showing the timbers and rafters, and rough boards and cross-timbersoverhead, as if ready for plastering. The door is at the east end, with a small window on each side of it, a similarwindow on each side of the building, and one at the west end, the latter looking down the garden walk. In frontof the last window is a small box stove with a funnel rising to a level with the plate, and there inserted in a smallbrick chimney which rests on planks. On the south side of the room, against the stove, is a rude settle with acoarse cushion and pillow; on the opposite side a large low desk with some bookshelves above it; on the sameside by the window, a small table covered with books; and in the N.E. corner, behind the door, an old-fashionedsecretary, its pigeonholes stuffed with papers. On the opposite side as you enter is a place for fuel, which theboy leaves each morning, a place to hang greatcoats. there were two small pieces of carpet on the floor, and R.or one of his guests swept out the Shanty each morning. There was a small kitchen clock hanging in the S.W.corner, and a map of Bristol County behind the settle. The west and N.W. side is well-nigh covered with slipsof paper on which are written some sentences or paragraphs from R.’s favorite books. I noticed among the mostcharacteristic Didbin’s “Tom Tackle,” a translation of Anacreon’s Cicada, lines celebrating tobacco, Milton’s“How charming is divine philosophy,” &c., “Inveni requiem; Spes et Fortuna valete: Nil mihi vobiscumest: laudite nunc alios.” (Is it Petrarch?) this is also over the door, “Mors pallida æquo pulsat pedepauperum tabernas regumque turres.” Some lines of his own in memory of A.J. Downing, “Not to be in ahurry,” over the desk, and many other quotations, celebrating retirement, country life, simplicity, humanity,sincerity, &c., &c., from Cowper and other English poets, and similar extracts from newspapers. There werealso two or three advertisements of cattle-show exhibitions, and the warning not to kill birds contrary to laws,he being one of the subscribers notified to enforce the act, an advertisement of a steamboat on LakeWinnepiseogee, &c., cards of his business friends. The size of different brains, from “Hall’s Journal of Health,”and “Take the world Easy.” A sheet of blotting paper tacked up, and of Chinese characters from a tea-chest. Alsoa few small pictures and pencil sketches, the latter commonly caricatures of his visitors or friends, as “TheTrojan” (Channing) and Van Beest; I take the most notice of these particulars because his peculiarities are socommonly unaffected. He has long been accustomed to put these scraps on his walls, and has a basket fullsomewhere saved from the old Shanty, though there were some quotations which had no right there. I found allhis peculiarities faithfully expressed, his humanity, his fear of death, love of retirement, simplicity, &c. Themore characteristic books were Bradley’s Husbandry, Drake’s Indians, Barber’s Hist. Coll., Zimmermann onSolitude, Bigelow’s Plants of Boston, &c., Farmer’s Register of the first Settlers of New England, Marshall’sGardening, Vick’s Gardener, John Woolman, The Modern Horse Doctor, Downing’s Fruits, &c., The Farmer’sLibrary, Walden, Dymond’s Essays, Jobb Scott’s Journal, Morton’s Memorial, Bailey’s Dictionary, Downing’sLandscape Gardening, etc., The Task, Nuttall’s Ornithology, Morse’s Gazetteer, The Domestic Practice ofHydropathy, John Buncle, Dwight’s Travels, Virgil, Young’s Night Thoughts, History of Plymouth, and otherShanty books.There was an old gun, hardly safe to fire, said to be loaded with an inextractable charge, and also an old swordover the door; also a tin sign, “D. Ricketson’s office” (he having set up for a lawyer once), and a small crumpledhorn; there I counted more than 20 rustic canes scattered about, a dozen or 15 pipes of various patterns (mostlythe common), two spy-glasses, an open paper of tobacco, an Indian’s jaw (dug up), a stuffed Bluejay, and PineGrosbeak, and a rude Indian stone hatchet, &c., &c. There was a box with fifteen or twenty knives, mostly verylarge old-fashioned jack-knives, kept for curiosity, occasionally giving one to a boy or friend. A large book fullof pencil sketches, “to be inspected by whomsomever,” containing mostly sketches of his friends, &c.,
Whenever and wherever you see this little pencil icon in the pages of this Kouroo Contexture, it is marking an extract from the journal of Henry David Thoreau. OK?
acquaintances, and himself, of wayfaring men whom he had met, Quakers, &c., &c., and now and then a verseunder fence rail, or an old-fashioned house sketched on a peculiar pea-green paper. A pail of water stands behindthe door, with a peculiar tin cup for drinking, made in France.
John Paul Pritchard’s “Horace’s Influence upon Criticism”:
Although the transcendentalists laid claim to extensivescholarly attainments, the very nature of their beliefs madethem chary of admitting always the source of many of their ideas.This, true of Emerson, is even more characteristic of Thoreau.One gains insight into their classical interests more from theirprivate journals than from their works intended for publication.Consequently, while Thoreau’s literary theory owes much toHorace, he states it as though the theory were his own, withoutcareful reference to sources. As a competent scholar [NormanFoerster] has remarked, however, “Thoreau without his classicalbackground would simply not have been Thoreau”; and in thisclassical background Horace has his large place. Since Thoreau’sactual reference to, or quotation from, Horace represents onlya small part of his indebtedness to him, his references will bementioned merely in chronological order. In his journal forDecember 31, 1837, he remarks: “We go picking up from year toyear and laying side by side the disjecta membra of truth.” [thereference is to Horace’s SATIRES, “Invenias etiam disiecti membrapoetae.”] Two years later he asserts: “For an impenetrableshield, stand inside yourself; he was an arrant coward who firstmade shields of brass. For armor of proof, mea virtute me involvo(I wrap myself in my virtue).” In January, 1840, he writes alengthy letter in Latin to his sister Helen, in which he quotesthe opening lines, slightly modified, of ODES I 9, uses thephrase laetiore plectro, a slight alteration of ODES II.1.40[leviore plectro], three verses of ODES I 4, and the phrasedesipere in loco [from ARS POETICA]. In January 1843, he describesa lecturer as driving “gracefully in medias res.” In March 1853,he quotes without context in his journal, coelum non animummutant, qui trans mare currunt; and four days later, in acriticism of John Evelyn, he makes use of the term“sesquipedalian words.” In WALDEN, published in 1854, he uses,though quite out of its Horatian setting, the phrase “aridiculous mouse.” In April 1857 he notices among the wall-mottoes in his friend Ricketson’s shanty the Horatian tagbeginning mors aequo pulsat [from ODES]. It is significant thatthis motto, of the several which he jotted down, is the onlymotto which he felt it unnecessary to assign to its author.Horace apparently charmed Thoreau for his “elegance andvivacity.”
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only” computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of Austin Meredith,copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which, instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith — and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact the project at <[email protected]>.
Prepared: January 12, 2015
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”
– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Well, tomorrow is such and such a date and so it began on that date in like 8000BC? Why 8000BC, because it was the beginning of the current interglacial -- or what?
Bearing in mind that this is America, "where everything belongs," the primary intent of such a notice is to prevent some person or corporate entity from misappropriating the materials and sequestering them as property for censorship or for profit.
THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: HORACE
HDT WHAT? INDEX
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely push a button.
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with <[email protected]>. Arrgh.
