He became lovingly familiar not alone with Greek and Latin classics but also with the earlier English poets, Chaucer, Gower, Donne, Spenser and Milton. Harvard, during Thoreau's time, was passing through its literary fever. The professors, Ticknor, Bancroft, Sparks, and Channing, recognizing the benefits of literary culture in foreign universities, especially in Germany, brought back to Harvard the germs of a renaissance destined to create the first true American literature. It has been truthfully said that "probably Professor Edward T. Channing trained as many conspicuous authors as all other American instructors put together." Goethe, Carlyle, Tennyson, and Emerson were introduced gradually into literature classes and the students became omnivorous readers, often joining secret societies for the weekly supply of matter thus attainable.
In addition to the literary incentive which Thoreau gained in his Harvard residence, there were sundry minor influences which left traces upon his character. A young man of his temperament, proud, stoical, critical, thoughtful, with a marked independence and lack of affability, however sterling his character, however sensitive his dormant affections, is unlikely to make friends in large numbers among his teachers or classmates.
