A. Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:
Blake [H. G. O. Blake] and Brown [Theophilus Brown] are here. They come to see Thoreau, who has walked out with Channing [William Ellery Channing] once or twice in the last days, and seems a little better. These men have something of the disciple’s faith in their master’s thought, and come sometimes on pilgrimage to Concord for an interview with him. This confidence in persons, this love of the mind, enthusiasm for a great man’s thoughts, is a promising trait in anyone, a disposition always graceful to witness, and is far too rarely seen in our times of personal indifference, if not of confessed unbelief in Persons and Ideas. I know of nothing more creditable to Thoreau than this thoughtful regard and constancy by which he had held for years some of the best persons of his time. They are not many, to be sure, but do credit alike to him and themselves.
(The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 337)
