the Thoreau Log.
15 January 1851.

Portland, Maine. Thoreau lectures on “An Excursion to Cape Cod” at the Temple Street Chapel for the Portland Lyceum (Studies in the American Renaissance 1995, 193-7).

Portland, Maine. William Willis writes in his journal:

  Lyceum lecture by Henry Thoreau of Concord Mass. did not attend. Said to have been a very poor lecture” (Studies in the American Renaissance 1995, 197).

Concord, Mass. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:

  The proof of literary genius is the nobil volgar eloquenza,1 or, with large views, the low tone, and humour to show its unaffectedness. Burns & Goethe & Carlyle, with great difference of power, understand it well. Goethe is in this way a great success.

M M E [Mary Moody Emerson] & Henry James are both proficients, & C. K N., [Charles King Newcomb] H. D. T., & W. E. C. [William Ellery Channing]

(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 11:330)

1 “Noble vulgar speech.” See Emerson’s “Literature” (The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5:234).

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