Log Search Results

between 15 and 19 May 1861. Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Thoreau writes to his mother and sister (Studies in the American Renaissance 1982, 391).

between 16 and 28 March 1834. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau, along with 39 of his freshman classmates, signs a petition opposing the student ranking system at Harvard University:

To the Honourable Faculty of Harvard University,

  The undersigned members of the Freshman class, believing it to be the sole object of your honourable body to act in such manner as best to promote the interests of those under your immediate control, and deeming it their duty as well as privilege to make known to your body in conjunction with others their feelings ask leave to present for your consideration their views on the system of rank at present adopted. We have no doubt that the original design of this system was good, But at the present time instead of being as it was probably intended by those who introduced it a consequence resulting from labour with higher and nobler motive in view, it has become in a great degree the primary and sole object and with its attainment, in whatever manner, all exertion ceases. That this system tends to produce envy and jealousy among those whose interests require that they should at least in some degree be united we think is evident.

  We believe moreover that the time has arrived when literary standing must depend on something more than mere college rank, when a nobler motive must prompt the student to action than the petty emulation of the school-boy, when he must have a higher standard of action than the mere marks of his instructor. Again we think the direct tendency of this system to produce superficial scholars is as strong argument in favour of its abolition. So long as this system of rank is the criterion by which his scholarship is to be judged it will be his endeavour not so much to become thoroughly acquainted with a subject as to study it in such a manner as will best insure his success in the recitation room. Impressed with these views we submit them to your consideration with the request that some measures may be taken for the abolition of that system which has produced so universal disatisfaction.

(Emerson Society Quarterly 8 (1957):17-18)
between 24 and 29 July 1839. Concord, Mass.

Ellen Sewall writes to her father Edmund Quincy Sewall Sr. on 31 July:

  Besides numerous other little walks which I shall not now mention, we have visited a hill in the neighborhood called Anursnuck. We went by water three miles up the North Branch, which was the pleasantest part of the excursion. There is a fine view of the neighboring town from the top of the hill, and of the town of Concord, too. We found some berries there. We found the sail back still more pleasant than the sail there, as it was nearly sundown and quite cool and comfortable.
(transcript in The Thoreau Society Archives at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, Lincoln, Mass.; MS, private owner)

ca. 1 June 1835. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau copies extracts from The Headsman; or, the Abbaye des Vignerons. A Tale by James Fenimore Cooper, likely borrowed from the library of the Institute of 1770, into a notebook (The Transcendentalists and Minerva, 1:139-40).

ca. 10 August 1855. Concord, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:

  H.D.T. asks fairly enough, when is it that the man is to begin to provide for himself? . . . H.D.T. notices that Franklin & Richardson of Arctic Expeditions outlived their robuster comrades by more intellect.
(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 13:454, 456)
ca. 14 October 1836. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau writes an essay on the prompt “Whether the Government ought to educate the children of those parents, who refuse to do it themselves” (Early Essays and Miscellanies, 60-1).

ca. 15 July to 25 August 1837. Lincoln, Mass.

Thoreau and Charles Stearns Wheeler live in a hut by Flints Pond that Wheeler had previously built. They spend their time reading and recuperating at the hut, but take their dinners at the Wheelers (The Days of Henry Thoreau, 49).

ca. 16 September 1836. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau writes an essay on the prompt “Whether the Cultivation of the Imagination Conduce to the Happiness of the Individual” (Early Essays and Miscellanies, 47-9).

ca. 17 to 30 September 1837. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal on 29 October:

  A curious incident happened some four or six weeks ago which I think it worth the while to record. John and I had been searching for Indian relics, and been successful enough to find two arrowheads and a pestle, when, of a Sunday evening, with our heads full of the past and its remains, we strolled to the mouth of Swamp Bridge Brook. As we neared the brow of the hill forming the bank of the river, inspired by my theme, I broke forth into an extravagant eulogy on those savage times, using most violent gesticulations by way of illustration. “There on Nawshawtuct,” said I, “was their lodge, the rendezvous of the tribe, and yonder, on Clamshell Hill, their feasting ground. This was, no doubt, a favorite haunt; here on this brow was an eligible lookout post. How often have they stood on this very spot, at this very hour, when the sun was sinking behind yonder woods and gilding with his last rays the waters of the Musketaquid, and pondered the day’s success and the morrow’s prospects, or communed with the spirit of their fathers gone before them to the land of shades!

  “Here,” I exclaimed, “stood Tahatawan; and there.” (to complete the period) “is Tahatawan’s arrowhead.”

  We instantly proceeded to sit down on the spot I had pointed to, and I, to carry out the joke, to lay bare an ordinary stone which my whim had selected, when lo! the first I laid hands on, the grubbing stone that was to be, proved a most perfect arrowhead, as sharp as if just from the hands of the Indian fabricator!!!

(Journal, 1:7-8)
ca. 21 December 1836. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes a memorial to Tahattawan:

The Cliffs—a Cenotaph:Siste qui conscendis!

Hîc

Filius Naturae

TAHATTAWAN, Sachimaupan,*

Extremus Indorum,

Venatus, hoc rivo piscatus est.

Per agros, prata, collesque, regnavit;

At si famae credendum est,

Manus non longas habuit.

Homo, Princeps, Christianus,

Quamvis incultus non indeploratus.

In moribus scilicet austerus et sine levitate;

Sermone grandis, venustus, imo etiam modicus!!!

Integritate fortitudineque explorata praeclarus.

—–

Hoc Scopulum ejus cenotapium este.

Indi, eheu! Ubique gentium sunt?

“Wehquetumah,—onk—kuttinnumoush—penowohteáog—wutche—kookom—puhchasuash,—kah—aongkóe—an—ohkeoog—wutche—kutahtó—onk.”

Psalm, 2. 8.Sculptum A. D. 1836.

*Sachimaupan; he that was prince here. This expression they use, because they abhor to mention the dead by name: and therefore, if any man bear the name of the dead, he changeth his name; and if any stranger accidentally name him, he is checked; and if any wilfully name him, he is fined: and amongst states, the naming of their dead Sachems is one ground of their wars.
(R. Williams’ Key into the Language of the Indians of N. E.)
Translation by Albert Merriman:
The Cliffs—a Cenotaph:Step, thou who hast mounted [here]!

Here

A son of Nature

TAHATTAWAN, Sachimaupan,

The last of the Indians,

Hunted, in this stream he fished.

Over fields, meadows and hills he held sway,

But if report must be credited

He possessed no distant bands.

A Man, Chief, Christian,

Although unschooled not unlamented.

In character austere and without levity;

In language lofty, charming, and withal sparing!!

In integrity and resolution tried and found pre-eminent.

—–

This cliff shall be his cenotaph.

O Indians, alas! [and] where in the world are they?

“Desire of me, and I shall give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.”

Psalm 2:8
Engraved 1836 A.D.
(Thoreau and His Harvard Classmates, 75-77)

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