genius. By his own confession and the attestation of all his friends, he was a man of sudden, vacillating moods, with a perversity and improvidence which often brought despair to his own heart and home-circle. His was a heritage of high ideals and liberal intellect as his name, like that of his noble uncle, testified. After his college life was ended, and experimental years passed in various places, including a brief period in Illinois log-cabin life, he came to Concord in 1843. A few months younger than Thoreau he soon became his constant comrade after the death of John Thoreau. Emerson, also, found in Channing a stimulative companion on woodland walks. Both Channing and Thoreau, in their early poetic efforts, incurred the exaggerated criticism of being mere imitators of Emerson. In "A Fable for Critics," Lowell has clearly sneered at these two friends in the lines,—
"There comes . . . (Channing), for instance; to see him's rare sport
Tread in Emerson's tracks with legs painfully short;
*******
"He follows as close as a stick to a rocket,
His fingers exploring the prophet's each pocket.
Fie! for shame, brother bard; with good fruit of your own,
Can't you let neighbor Emerson's orchards alone?
Besides, 'tis no use, you'll not find e'en a core,—
. . . (Thoreau) has picked up all the windfalls before."
Thoreau seems to have educed the lovable, com-
