PASSAGES FROM THE AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS

OF

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE


VOL. II.



[EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE LETTERS.]


Brook Farm, Oak Hill, April 13th, 1841.--. . . . Here I am in a polar
Paradise! I know not how to interpret this aspect of nature,--whether it
be of good or evil omen to our enterprise. But I reflect that the
Plymouth pilgrims arrived in the midst of storm, and stepped ashore upon
mountain snowdrifts; and, nevertheless, they prospered, and became a
great people,--and doubtless it will be the same with us. I laud my
stars, however, that you will not have your first impressions of
(perhaps) our future home from such a day as this. . . . . Through faith,
I persist in believing that Spring and Summer will come in their due
season; but the unregenerated man shivers within me, and suggests a doubt
whether I may not have wandered within the precincts of the Arctic
Circle, and chosen my heritage among everlasting snows. . . . . Provide
yourself with a good stock of furs, and, if you can obtain the skin of a
polar bear, you will find it a very suitable summer dress for this
region. . . . .