Emerson & Thoreau

Emerson & Thoreau:

"At the 'teachers' meeting' last night my good Edmund [Hosmer] after disclaiming any wish to difference Jesus from a human mind suddenly seemed to alter his tone & said that Jesus made the world & was the Eternal God. Henry Thoreau merely remarked that 'Mr Hosmer had kicked the pail over.' I delight much in my young friend, who seems to have as free & erect a mind as any I have ever met. He told as we walked this afternoon a good story about a boy who went to school with him, Wentworth, who resisted the school mistress' command that the children should bow to Dr Heywood & other gentlemen as they went by, and when Dr Heywood stood waiting & cleared his throat with a Hem! Wentworth said, 'You need not hem, Doctor; I shan't bow.'

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, February 11, 1838"

Brilliant passage- perceptive man, Thoreau.