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31 May 1851, Saturday
Worcester, Massachusetts; Parlors of H. G. O. Blake’s School
"Walking, or the Wild"
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NARRATIVE OF EVENT: In his journal on Tuesday,
3 June 1851, Thoreau reported, "Lectured in Worcester last Saturday—& walked
to As- or Hasnebumskit Hill in Paxton the next day. Said to be the highest
land in Worcester County except Wachusett[.]" He added, "Met Mr.
Blake—Brown—Chamberlin—Hinsdale—Miss Butman? Wyman—Conant."
The Worcester account concluded, "Returned to Boston yesterday" (PEJ3, p.
241). Curiously, his entire journal entry of 31 May, the day of the lecture, reads:
"Pedestrium solatium in apricis locis.—nodosa" (PEJ3, p.
241)—which we translate as "The solace of walkers in sunny
places.—troublesome." Not part of a lyceum or other series, this was a private
lecture no doubt arranged by H. G. O. Blake and probably delivered in the parlors of
Blake’s school.1 Details of its delivery have
not surfaced. Almost six years later, on 13 February 1857, Thoreau gave a revised version
of the same lecture in Worcester. In a 6 February 1857 letter to Blake, he commented, with
reference to the 1851 presentation, "I should like to have it understood by those
whom it concerns, that I am invited to read in public (if it be so) what I have already
read, in part, to a private audience" (C, p. 465). On 9 June 1851, a week
after Thoreau returned from his private lecture engagement, Bronson Alcott noted in his
journal, "Dined with Thoreau . . . . T. tells me that he read his paper on
‘Walking’ lately at Worcester. He should read this, and the ‘Walden’
also, everywhere in our towns and cities, for the soundness and rectitude of the
sentiments. They would have a wholesome influence."2
ADVERTISEMENTS, REVIEWS, AND
RESPONSES: None known.
DESCRIPTION OF TOPIC: See
lecture 31 above. During the thirty-eight days since delivering what we assume was
essentially this same lecture in Concord, Thoreau wrote several passages in his journal
that are the sources for passages now in his essays "Walking" and "Life
without Principle." We can safely assume that he added those new passages to his
lecture text during that interim and read them at this time.
Notes
1. According to
Worcester resident Annie Russell Marble, Thoreau: His Home, Friends and Books (New
York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902), "Mr. Blake and another friend, Mr. Theophilus Brown,
arranged lectures in Worcester before small, interested audiences, generally in the
parlors of Mr. Blake’s school" at 1 Warren Block on Pearl Street (p. 151). [Back to Text]
2. Alcott, Journals,
p. 250. [Back to Text] |