The Invention of Nature (65 page)

50 Thoreau measured precisely: Myerson 1979, p.41.

50 frozen bubbles: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.328ff.

51 ‘calling on some scholar’: Ibid., p.268, 352.

52 Thoreau and Transcendentalism: Walls 1995, p.61ff.

53 ‘cloud the sight’: Emerson 1971–2013, vol.1, 1971, p.39.

54 ‘spirit is matter reduced’: Ibid., vol.3, 1983, p.31.

55 ‘not come from experience’: Emerson, 1842, Richardson 1986, p.73.

56 ‘of knowing truth’: J.A. Saxon, ‘Prophecy, – Transcendentalism, – Progress’, The Dial, vol.2, 1841, p.90.

57 Thoreau reoriented his life: Dean 2007, p.82ff.; Walls 1995, pp.116–17; Thoreau to Harrison Gray Otis Blake, 20 November 1849, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.250; Thoreau, 8 October 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.133.

58 ‘Field Notes’: Thoreau, 21 March 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.6, p.20.

59 ‘botany box’: Thoreau, 23 June 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.126; see also Channing 1873, p.247.

60 scientists today: Richard Primack, a professor of biology at Boston University, has collaborated with colleagues at Harvard to use Thoreau’s journals for studies in climate change. Utilizing Thoreau’s meticulous entries they have discovered that climate change has come to Walden Pond as many of the spring flowers now flower more than ten days earlier; see Andrea Wulf, ‘A Man for all Seasons’, New York Times, 19 April 2013.

61 ‘I omit the unusual’: Thoreau, 28 August 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.17.

62 ‘I feel ripe for’: Thoreau, 16 November 1850, ibid., vol.3, pp.144–5.

63 Thoreau reading AH: Sattelmeyer 1988, pp.206–7, 216; Walls 1995, pp.120–21; Walls 2009, pp.262–8; for Thoreau and AH’s books, 6 January 1851, meeting of the Standing Committee of the Concord Social Library, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s hand: ‘The Committee have added to the Library in the last year Humboldts Aspects of Nature’; Box 1, Folder 4, Concord Social Library Records (Vault A60, Unit B1), William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public Library.

64 ‘a sort of elixir’: Thoreau, ‘Natural History of Massachusetts’, Thoreau Excursion and Poems 1906, p.105.

65 ‘His reading was done’: Channing 1873, p.40.

66 AH in Thoreau’s journals and publications: Thoreau’s Fact Book in the Harry Elkins Widener Collection in the Harvard College Library. The Facsimile of Thoreau’s Manuscript, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1966, vol.3, 1987, pp.193, 589; Thoreau’s Literary Notebook in the Library of Congress, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1964, p.362; Sattelmeyer 1988, pp.206–7, 216; AH mentioned in Thoreau’s published work: For example Cape Cod, A Yankee in Canada, and The Maine Woods.

67 ‘Humboldt says’: Thoreau, 1 April 1850, 12 May 1850, 27 October 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, pp.52, 67–8 and vol.7, p.119.

68 ‘Where is my cyanometer’: Thoreau, 1 May 1853, ibid., vol.6, p.90.

69 Orinoco and Concord: Thoreau, 1 April 1850, ibid., vol.3, p.52.

70 Peterborough hills and Andes: Thoreau, 13 November 1851, ibid., vol.4, p.182.

71 ‘large Walden Pond’: Myerson 1979, p.52.

72 ‘Standing on the Concord’: Thoreau, ‘A Walk to Wachusett’, Thoreau Excursion and Poems 1906, p.133.

73 ‘drink at my well’: Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.393–4.

74 travel at home: Thoreau, 6 August 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.356.

75 ‘but how much alive’: Thoreau, 6 May 1853, ibid., vol.8, p.98.

76 ‘your own streams’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.423.

77 ‘You tell me it is’: Thoreau, 25 December 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.222.

78 ‘which enriches the understanding’: Ibid.

79 ‘deprived thereby of the’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.72; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.74.

80 ‘chill the feelings’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.1, p.21; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.1, p.21.

81 ‘deeply-seated bond’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, p.87; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, p.90.

82 ‘Every poet has trembled’: Thoreau, 18 July 1852; see also 23 July 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.331 and vol.5, p.233.

83 ‘a true account’: Henry David Thoreau, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906, vol. 1, p.347.

84 stopped using journal for poetry and facts: Sattelmeyer 1988, p.63; Walls 2009, p.264.

85 ‘the most interesting & beautiful’: Thoreau, 18 February 1852, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.356.

86 Thoreau wrote seven drafts of Walden (footnote): Sattelmeyer 1992, p.429ff.; Shanley 1957, pp.24–33.

87 changes of Walden manuscript: Sattelmeyer 1992, p.429ff.; Shanley 1957, p.30ff.

88 ‘I feel myself uncommonly’: Thoreau, 7 September 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4, p.50.

89 ‘The year is a circle’: Thoreau, 18 April 1852, ibid., p.468.

90 seasonal lists: Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.494; see also his seasonal charts extracted from his journals, Howarth 1974, p.308ff.

91 ‘a book of the seasons’: Thoreau, 6 November 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.3, p.253, 255.

92 ‘I enjoy the friendship’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.173.

93 ‘look at Nature’: Thoreau, 4 December 1856, Thoreau Journal 1906, vol.9, p.157; see also Walls 1995, p.130; Walls 2009, p.264.

94 methods based on AH’s Views: Thoreau to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 19 December 1853, Thoreau Correspondence 1958, p.310.

95 earth as ‘living poetry’: Thoreau, 5 February 1854, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.7, p.268.

96 ‘snore in the river’: Thoreau, 14 May 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.56.

97 ‘the record of my love’: Thoreau, 16 November 1850 and 13 July 1852, ibid., vol.3, p.143 and vol.5, p.219..

98 cut flowers as metaphor for book: Thoreau, 27 January 1852, ibid., vol.4, p.296.

99 ‘bring him a berry’: Emerson to William Emerson, 28 September 1853, Emerson 1939, vol.4, p.389.

100 ‘I am dissipated by’: Thoreau, 23 March 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.6, p.30.

101 ‘detailed & scientific’: Thoreau, 19 August 1851, ibid., vol.3, p.377.

102 ‘With all your science’: Thoreau, 16 July 1851, ibid., p.306ff.

103 no poems: Thoreau wrote almost no poems after 1850, Howarth 1974, p.23.

104 ‘Nature will be my’: Thoreau, 10 May 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.6, p.105.

105 ‘the pure blood’: Thoreau, 23 July 1851, ibid., vol.3, pp.330–31..

106 ‘thus reduced to a’: Thoreau, 20 October 1852, ibid., vol.5, p.378.

107 ‘Order. Kosmos’: Thoreau wrote ‘Kosmos’ in Greek, ‘κόσμος’, Thoreau, 6 January 1856, Thoreau Journal 1906, vol.8, p.88.

108 ‘a little world all to’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.172.

109 ‘Why should I feel lonely’: Ibid., p.175.

110 ‘Am I not partly leaves’: Ibid., p.182.

111 thawing of sand: Thoreau, spring 1848, 31 December 1851, 5 February and 2 March 1854, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.2, p.382ff., vol.4, p.230, vol.7, p.268, vol.8, p.25ff.

112 thawing in first version: Thoreau’s first version of Walden, Shanley 1957, p.204; in published Walden, see Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.402–9.

113 ‘the anticipation of the’: Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.404–5.

114 ‘prototype’: Thoreau Walden 1910, pp.404–5; for Thoreau and Goethe’s urform, see Richardson 1986, pp.8.

115 ‘unaccountably interesting and’: Thoreau’s first version of Walden, Shanley 1957, p.204.

116 ‘the principle of all’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.407.

117 ‘lives & grows’: Thoreau, 31 December 1851, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.4. p.230.

118 ‘living poetry’: Thoreau, 5 February 1854, ibid., vol.7. p.266; see also Thoreau Walden 1910, p.408.

119 ‘Earth is all alive’: Thoreau Walden 1910, p.399.

120 ‘in full blast’: Ibid., p.408.

121 ‘like the creation of’: Ibid., p.414.

122 Walden as mini-Cosmos: Walls 2011–12, p.2ff.

123 ‘Facts fall from the’: Thoreau, 19 June 1852, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol. 5, p.112; for objective and subjective observation, Thoreau, 6 May 1854, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.8, p.98; Walls 2009, p.266.

124 ‘I milk the sky’: Thoreau, 3 November 1853, Thoreau Journal 1981–2002, vol.7, p.140.

Chapter 20: The Greatest Man Since the Deluge

1 articles read in coffee houses: Varnhagen Diary, 3 March 1848, Varnhagen 1862, vol.4, p.259.

2 ‘only had to get rid’: Varnhagen, 5 April 1841, Beck 1959, p.177.

3 ‘does just what he’: Varnhagen, 18 March 1843, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.97.

4 ‘earthly matters’: Varnhagen, 1 April 1844, ibid., p.106; see also AH to Gauß, 14 June 1844, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.87; AH to Bunsen, 16 December 1846, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.90.

5 not ruled by popular will: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, speech to Vereinigte Landtag, 11 April 1847, Mommsen 2000, p.82ff.; for AH reporting the king’s speech, AH to Bunsen, 26 April 1847, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.96.

6 revolution in Berlin: Varnhagen Diary, 18 March 1848, ibid., p.276ff.

7 ‘Oh Lord, oh Lord’: Varnhagen Diary, 19 March 1848, ibid., p.313.

8 slow reforms: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 4 September 1848, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.13; AH to Bunsen, 22 September 1848, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.113.

9 revolution Berlin: Varnhagen Diary, 19 March 1848, Varnhagen 1862, vol.4, pp.315–31.

10 king wearing black, red, gold: Varnhagen Diary, 21 March 1848, ibid., p.334.

11 AH balcony with king: Varnhagen Diary, 21 March 1848, ibid., p.336; for AH at funeral procession, see Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.341 and AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.23.

12 ‘differences in political’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 20 September 1847, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.318.

13 ‘ultraliberal’: Friedrich Schleiermacher, 5 September 1832, Beck 1959, p.129; Bruhns 1873, vol.2, p.102; Wilhelm of Prussia to his sister Charlotte, 10 February 1831, Leitner 2008, p.227.

14 ‘He is well aware’: Charles Lyell to Charles Lyell sen., 8 July 1823, Lyell 1881, vol.1, p.128.

15 ‘hard pork chops’: AH to Hedemann, 17 August 1857, Biermann and Schwarz 2001b, no page numbers.

16 ‘a spineless pale one’: AH to Varnhagen, 24 June 1842, Assing 1860, p.66.

17 ‘courage to have his’: Max Ring, 1841 or 1853, Beck 1959, p.183.

18 ‘always the same, always’: Krätz 1999b, p.33; see also AH to Friedrich Althaus, 23 December 1849, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.29.

19 ‘a revolutionary and’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 5 August 1852, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.96; see also AH to Varnhagen, 26 December 1845, Beck 1959, p.215.

20 AH frustrated about politics: AH to Varnhagen, 29 May 1848, Beck 1959, p.238.

21 ‘organism and the unity’: AH to Maximillian II, 3 November 1848, AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.403.

22 prospects gloomy: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 September 1848, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.337.

23 ‘dirt and clay’: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to Joseph von Radowitz, 23 December 1848, Lautemann and Schlenke 1980, p.221ff.

24 ‘a dog collar’: King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to King Ernst August von Hanover, April 1849, Jessen 1968, p.310ff.

25 AH disappointed about politics: AH to Johann Georg Cotta, 7 April 1849 and 21 April 1849, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.367; Leitner 2008, p.232; AH to Friedrich Althaus, 23 December 1849, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.28; AH to Gauß, 22 February 1851, AH Gauß Letters 1977, p.100; AH to Bunsen, 27 March 1852, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.146.

26 ‘pest of slavery’: AH to Oscar Lieber, 1849, AH Letters USA 2004, p.265.

27 ‘the old Spanish Conquista’: AH to Johann Flügel, 19 June 1850; for AH and Mexican war, see John Lloyd Stephens, 2 July 1847 and AH to Robert Walsh, 8 December 1847, ibid., pp.252, 268, 529–30.

28 ‘worn-out hope’: AH to Arago, 9 November 1849, quoted in AH Geography 2009, p.xi.

29 ‘endless oscillations’: AH to Heinrich Berghaus, August 1848, AH Spiker Letters 2007, p.25.

30 excitement for revolutions wearing off: Friedrich Daniel Bassermann about AH, 14 November 1848, Beck 1969, p.264.

31 ‘cosmical phaenomena’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.3, p.i; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.3, p.3.

32 ‘master of the materials’: AH to Bunsen, 27 March 1852, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.146.

33 ‘those half dead are’: AH to du Bois-Reymond, 21 March 1852, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.124; see also AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 3 February 1853, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.497.

34 ‘goblin on his’: AH to to Johann Georg von Cotta, 4 September 1852, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.484.

35 ‘Micro-Cosmos’: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 16 September and 2 November 1848; and Johann Georg von Cotta to AH, 21 February 1849, ibid., pp.338, 345, 355.

36 ‘it remains for the third’: AH Cosmos 1845–52, vol.3, p.8; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.3, p.9; see also Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.391.

37 O’Leary visited AH: Daniel O’Leary, 1853, Beck 1969, p.265; AH to O’Leary, April 1853, MSS141, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá.

38 ‘for the sake of seeing’: Bayard Taylor, 1856, Taylor 1860, p.455.

39 AH’s attitude to Americans (footnote): Ibid., p.445; Rossiter W. Raymond, A Visit to Humboldt, January 1859, AH Letters USA 2004, p.572.

40 ‘usual benevolence’: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.201; see also AH to Dirichlet, 27 July 1852, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.104; Biermann and Schwarz 1999a, pp.189, 196.

41 young men like his children: AH to Dirichlet, 24 July 1845, AH Dirichlet Letters 1982, p.67.

42 ‘one of the most wonderful’: Carl Friedrich Gauß, Terra 1955, p.336.

43 AH and elections at Académie: Carl Vogt, January 1845, Beck 1959, p.202ff.

44 ‘and learned a lot from’: Ibid., p.205.

45 instructions for Hooker: AH to Joseph Dalton Hooker, 30 September 1847, reprinted in London Journal for Botany, vol.6, 1847, pp.604–7; Hooker 1918, vol.1, p.218.

46 ‘shamrock’: AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, p.72; see also AH to Bunsen, 20 February 1854, AH Bunsen Letters 2006, p.175; Finkelstein 2000, p.187ff.; AH Friedrich Wilhelm IV Letters 2013, pp.72–3.

47 ‘nothing in my life’: AH Central Asia 1844, vol.1, p.611.

48 AH’s instructions for artists: For Johann Moritz Rugendas, Eduard Hildebrandt and Ferdinand Bellermann, Werner 2013, pp.101ff., 121, 250ff.