The Transcript reviews Thoreau’s lecture of 21 March:
A man engaged in the fore-front of a battle can afterwards give but a poor description of the contest. He who gazes from a safe eminence may hope to do better, but if his vision be rendered indistinct by distance, rising exhalations or vapory mists, he may imagine triumphs where none have occurred, or distastes where victory has been secured. In his lecture Mr. Thoreau took us with him to his lonely retreat, and pointed out some of the principal features of the great battle of life, of which the earth is the scene. — But he saw them in the colorings given by his own mental vision — sometimes clear and lifelike, sometimes picturesque, and anon grotesque, sometimes humorous and playful, but always genial, and without misanthropy or malice. It was refreshing to go out of the beaten track, and follow an original mind in its wanderings among life’s labyrinths, and it was amusing to witness the play of fancy and strokes of wit which were scattered along its course. The lecture was the pepper, salt, and mustard of the course, and certainly gave an excellent relish to the whole . . . The report of Mr. Thoreau’s lecture, although very imperfect, conveys a tolerably good idea of the highly unique and amusing character of that production. Despite the no very slight touches of transcendentalism, there is much in it to furnish food for thought, as well as mirth.
(Studies in the American Renaissance, 1995, 171)
See entry 18 April.
