on this Sunday excursion. Mr. Hillard was a fortunate companion for him,
for no one could serve better as a mean between two extremes. At the
close of Hawthorne's rehearsal of this episode, he makes this note, in
commentary:--

"I find that my respect for clerical people, as such, and my faith in
the utility of their office, decrease daily. We certainly do need a new
Revelation, a new system; for there seems to be no life in the old one."

Was this the summary and net result of their stroll in Walden woods? It
must be confessed that such was the opinion of the most thoughtful and
high-minded people in those days; but we do not feel so now. Schism and
separation have done their work, and liberal thinkers everywhere are now
returning to the Christian fold.

* * * * *

About the first of June 1860 the Hawthorne family returned from their
long residence in England and Italy. There was no little curiosity
concerning them in the quiet old settlement, which was increased by the
fact that nothing was seen of them for several months after they came.

If Thoreau was a recluse, Hawthorne was an anchorite. He brought up his
children in such purity and simplicity as is scarcely credible,--not
altogether a wise plan. It was said that he did not even take a daily
paper. In the following year Martin F. Conway, the first United States
representative from Kansas, went to Concord to call on Emerson, and
Emerson invited Hawthorne to dine with them. Judge Conway afterwards
remarked that Mr. Hawthorne said very little during the dinner, and
whenever he spoke he blushed. Imagine a man five times as sensitive as a