^ HENRY THOREAU'S MOTHER HENRY THOREAU'S MOTHER NUMBER TWO LAKKLAND, MICHIGAN EDWIN B. HILL K;o8 In e:^.cliLi* «?e Jffichigan \. 30Ap'0« ;<^'& ANENT SANBORN'S LIFE OF THOREAU. ^piiE artless outburst of an indignant woman, herewith pre- seated, made its appearance in the Boston "Advertiser" of the date February 14, 1883, and was reprinted in the Con- cord "Freeman" for February 23 of the same year. The article gave universal satisfacliou in Concord, where both Thoreau and his biographer were well known. It is not known that the biographer made any reply.' There is a time when silence is indeed golden 1 SAXIUJRX AS A MOURNER. The day after Thoreau's funeral the Concord '• .Monitor published the following sonnet : THOREAU. Hush the loud chant, ye birds, at eve and morn, And something plaintive let the robin sing : (rune is our Woodman, leaving us forlorn. And veiled with tears the merry face of Spring. Our woods and pastures he for other groves Forsakes, and wanders now by fairer streams ; 4 HENRY THOKKAUS MOTHER. Yet not forgetful of his earthly loves, — Ah, no ! For so affe6lion fondly dreams. Dear One I 'T were shame to weep above thy grave. Or doubtingly thy soul's far flight pursue ; Peace and Delight must tliere await the brave, And Love attend the loving, wise, and true. Thy well-kept vows our broken aims shall mend, Oh as we think of thee, great-hearted friend. This wr.s published on the loth of May. And in the same magazine, two weeks later, appeared the following revision : HENRY DAVID THOREAU. 'I'his soiiiiet, owing to the impossibili y of sending the proof to the author, was altered and marred in printing, In justice t© him and ourselves, we reprint ii. Hush th^ loud chant, ye birds, at eve and morn. And something plaintive let the I'obin sing; — ijou'^ is our Wgodman, leaving us forlorn, Touching with grief the glad aspecfl of Spring ; Your whispering alleys, he for other groves Forsakes, and wanders now by fairer streams, — Yet not forgetful of his earlier loves, — Ah, no ! for so aTfecflion fondly dreams. Thoreau ! 't were shame to weep above thy grave, Or doubtingly thy soul's far flight pursue! Peace and delight must there await the brave, And Love attend the loving, wise, and true. Thy well kept vows our broken aims shall mend, Oft as we think on thee, great- hearted friend. Concord. May 6, 1862. HENKY IHOKEAUS MOTHER. 5 Was ever "copy" so "altered and marred"'? Was ever any one so credulous as he who believed the comp:)sitor "al- tered and marred " ? lUit, observe the date. Tlie very day upon which Thoreau died I Before he is cold in his cothn the poet-bio;^rapher is delivered of a sonnet I SANBORN AS A BIOCiRAPHER. It was twenty years later when the poet-l)iographcr essayed to write a biography of his departed friend. How he did it is shown in the indignant communication to the Boston "Adver- tiser." On which the reader will please make his or her own comments. HENRY THOREAU'S MOTHER. MR. SANBORN, in his book called "Henry I). Thoreau,' has seen fit to speak slightingly of Thoieau's mother and aunts. It seems particularly unmanly to do this now, so many years after their death, and when no near relative is left to defend their memory. Perhaps fur this reason he felt that he could do it with impunity. He has expended most of his injustice upon Henry Thoreau's mother. Such being the case, a few words from one who knew her well may not be inappropriate. As my excuse for troubling you with this communication, vou will perhaps allow me to quote a few paragraphs from Mr. Sanborn's book. Speaking of John Thoreau, Henry's father, Mr. Sanborn says: "John Thoreau led a plodding, unambitious, and respectable life in Concord village, educating his children, associating with his neighbors on those terms of equality for which Concord is famous, and keeping clear, in a great degree, of the quarrels, social and 8 HENRY THOKEAU'S MOTHER. political, which agitated the village.'' 'I'his is well enough, but he takes occasion to add: "Mrs. Tho- reau, on the other hand, with her sister Louisa, and her sisters-in-law, Sarah, Maria, and jane Thoreau, took their share in the village bickerings" I I ! I fail to see how Mr. Sanborn can know this unless he took a i)retty active part in these same village bickerings himself; and if he does not write it of his own knowl- edge, he is surely writing gossip of a very. small and petty kind. Perhaps he thought it witty to speak of them altogether in this way. Dear "Aunt Maria," one of the sweetest, gentlest w(,)men that ever lived, and whose letter, written when she was eighty-four years of age, is the one good thing' in Mr. Sanborn's l)ook ! Me rewards her for it bv speaking of her as taking her "share in the village bickerings I " Jt was surely left for Mr. Sanborn to discover this. Few of us remember Louisa Dunbar or Sarah and ' Smivj may take exception to ihc reinark that Miss Maria Tlioreau's letter is "the one goo;! thuig in Mr. Sanborn's hook." 1 do not mean to imply that there are not other gootl things in the book,-- ])leasant anecdotes and the like. 1 am not criticis- ing the book from a literary 'point of view; but the letter seems to me the only thing which adds anything to our knowledge of Thoreau aiid his ancestry not obtainable elsewhere. HENRY THOREAU S MOTHER. 9 Jane Thoreau well enough to speak of them from cur own knowledge, but those who do say that Mr. San- l^orn's allusion to them gives a very wrong impression, and is entirely without excuse. A lady who well re- members Louisa Dunbar and Jane Thoreau said to me: " I cannot conceive ofsucli a tiling being said in connedion with them. Why, we all loved them." But it is Henry Thoreau's mother whom Mr. Sanborn singles out as the special target for ill-natured criti- cism. I will quote again. After speaking of her brother, Charles Dunbar, Mr. Sanborn goes on in this strain: "Thoreau's mother had this same incessant and rather malicious liveliness that in Chafrles Dunbar took the grotesque form above hinted at. She was a kincily, shrewd woman, with traditions of gentility and sentinunis of generosity biii with sharp and sudden flash s of gossip ajid malice, ivhich never quite amounted to ill- nature [the italics are my own], but greatly provoked the grim and commonplace respect ability that she so often -came in contact with. Along with this humorous quality there went also an affecftionate earnestness in her relation with those who depended on her, that could not fail to be respeded by all who knew the hard conditions that New England life, even in a favored village like Concord, then imposed on the mother of a familv, where the outward circumstances TO HEXKV THOKEAUS MOTHER. were not in keeping with the inward aspiration.'' In another place he says of John Thoreau : "He was a small, deaf, and unobtrusive man, plainly clad, and 'minding' his own business ;' very much in contrast with his wife, who was one of the most unceasing talkers ever seen in Concord. Her gift in speech was proverbial;"' and more follows of the same sort. It has not com- monly been su[)posed that ^Iv. Sanborn considered " minding one's business" the height of virtue. I have never before heard it intimated that Mrs. Thoreau fiiiled in that respect, and yet she was nof like a wo- man I once knew whose next door neighbor died, and had been buried two weeks before she knew that any- tliing unusual had taken place! Mrs. Thoreau was a good friend and kind neighbor, as many can testify. It is, perhaps, needless to remark that .Mr. .Sanborn's book has given great pain to the manv friends of tlie Thoreau family. But it is for this reason that I pro- pose to speak of a few things which Mr. Sanborn omits to speak of. and to enlarge a little upon some of which he does speak. I think the characteristics which chiefly impressed those of us who knew Mrs. Thoreau best, were the ac- tivity of her mind and the wideness of her symjiathy. The first quality Henry inherited. She was also an excellent mother and housewife. In the midst of i)ov- HKXRY THOREAIS MOTHER. II erly she brought U{) her children to all the amenities of life, and, if she had but a crust of bread lor dinner, would see that it was properly served. Mr. Sanborn says patronizingly, "she had sentiments of generosity." She certainly had, though I should scarcely have spoken of it in thai waw Year after year, on Christmas and Thanksgiving days, she invited to her table, not the rich who would return her hospitality, but her poorer neighbors from whom she could expect no return. She was never so {)Oor or so bus} that she did not fmd ways of helping those poorer than herself Such was her inliuence in this respect that it was felt bv all who came in contact with her, and one voung girl was heard to say, "When L grow up, I will do like Airs. Thoreau. 1 will give my gifts to those who need them, and I will invite to my table the poor rather than the rich, who are sure to ha\e plenty of invita- tions without mine. '" And yet she did not confine her hospitality to the j)oor; people of every kind and degree were welcomed under her roof Her efforts in the anti-slavery cause are well known. Slie was unsparing in her denunciation of the fugitive slave law, and was one of the first to give aid and com- fort to fugitives. Are these things what Mv. Sanborn means bv •'sentiments of generosity"'.^ When she 12 HENRY THOKEAUS MOTHER. became interested iii a poor servant-girl, she placed money in the bank for her, and encouraged her to add little sums to it from time to time. And when she made her will, every dollar was disposed of conscien- tiously where she thought it would do the most good, and in no way merely for her own pleasure. It was no mere impulse which made her do these things, but a high and noble piincii)le. Idiere was no poor man or woman who came in contact with her to whom she did not do some good. She had her faults, as which of us has not.-* but her aim was high. She expressed liersclf frankl)' at all limes, and she sometimes told disagreeable truths; ])ev- haps she felt it a duty to do so. She had the courage of her convidions, and she certainly never hesitated to condemn a fault. It was done in all honesty to bring al)out a reform. She was nuich more likely to say severe things to peo})le than of them. I'his does not make a person popular. She was a great talker, and she occasionally said sharf) things ; but what was this in comparison with her virtues.-^ vShe was quick-witted and observing, and naturally had more to say than some of her neighbors. She was never guilty of mean and petty gossip. She was not uncharitable, and could readily forgive a fiult if she saw any signs of rejient- ance. On the whole, I think few women have done HKNRY THOREAUS MOTHER. - I3 more good and less harm in the world than ]\Irs. Thoreau. That any biographer of Henr)- Thoreau should use his name as a center around which to weave a tissue of petty gossip about his mother and aunts would seem peculiarly ungracious ; but that this should be done by one calling himself his "friend" is a refine- ment of cruelty which has seldom been {)aralleled in literarv annals. «- * * LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 015 871 678 1