848 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [185G,
thinker, concerning whom Cholmondeley wrote to Thoreau in 1857 : "Is there actually such a man as Whitman? Has any one seen or han dled him ? His is a tongue not understanded of the English people. I find the gentleman altogether left out of the book. It is the first book I have ever seen which I should call a 4 new book. "
Mr. Alcott writes under date of November 7, 1856, in New York : " Henry Thoreau arrives from Eagleswood, and sees Swinton, a wise young Scotchman, and Walt Whitman s friend, at my room (15 Laight Street), Thoreau declining to accompany me to Mrs. Botta s parlors, as in vited by her. He sleeps here. (November 8.) We find Greeley at the Harlem station, and ride with him to his farm, where we pass the day, and return to sleep in the city, Greeley coming in with us ; Alice Gary, the authoress, accompany ing us also. (Sunday, November 9.) We cross the ferry to Brooklyn, and hear Ward Beecher at the Plymouth Church. It was a spectacle, and himself the Preacher, if preacher there be anywhere now in pulpits. His auditors had to weep, had to laugh, under his potent magnetism, while his doctrine of justice to all men, bond and free, was grand. House, entries, aisles, galleries, all were crowded. Thoreau called it pagan, but I pronounced it good, very good, the best I
