Lovers of literature celebrate his sheer force and penetration of
phrase. But to the student of American thought Thoreau's prime
value lies in the courage and consistency with which he
endeavored to realize the gospel of Transcendentalism in his own
inner life.
Lovers of racial traits like to remember that Thoreau's
grandfather was an immigrant Frenchman from the island of Jersey,
and that his grandmother was Scotch and Quaker. His father made
lead pencils and ground plumbago in his own house in Concord. The
mother was from New Hampshire. It was a high-minded family. All
the four children taught school and were good talkers. Henry,
born in 1817, was duly baptized by good Dr. Ripley of the Old
Manse, studied Greek and Latin, and was graduated at Harvard in
1837, the year of Emerson's Phi Beta Kappa address. Even in
college the young man was a trifle difficult. "Cold and
unimpressible," wrote a classmate. "The touch of his hand was
moist and indifferent. He did not care for people." "An
unfavorable opinion has been entertained of his disposition to
exert himself," wrote President Quincy confidentially to Emerson
in 1837, although the kindly President, a year later, in
recommending Thoreau as a school-teacher, certified that "his
rank was high as a scholar in all the branches and his morals and
general conduct unexceptionable and exemplary.
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