Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/257

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THOREAU AND HIS FRIENDS
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friendship which never lost the bases of mutual respect and love but which suffered certain strains of difference in opinion, as the years passed. Emerson was deeply, vitally interested in Thoreau's future and anticipated great results for him and the world. Writing to a friend of Carlyle's expected visit to America about 1840, Emerson mentioned that he should introduce Thoreau as "the man of Concord." Recognizing the masterly powers of intellect and will in Thoreau, his friend prophesied for him leadership in literary and state affairs. In this forecast he had failed to give sufficient weight to certain marked limitations and unswerving tenets in Thoreau's character. Emerson possessed a remarkable poise and serene wisdom. He was victim of no impulses and intense passions. In philosophical and practical ideas alike, he was foresighted and calm. He never allowed his devotion to principle and reform to commit him to words or acts of extreme radicalism. When he left the church over which he ministered, because he could not accept the need of the eucharist, he made no bombastic scene. In his essays he uttered some startling and misty iconoclasms of thought and aim, but when he read these words or discussed his principles, he was always controlled, always tolerant of the views of others. In brief, he always