But is not this effort a
virtue in itself? Is not all progress in this world accomplished as the
frog escaped from the well, by jumping up three feet and falling back
two? Is not the very crown of character that which we derive from
failure, penitence, and self-reproach? Human nature is a mysterious
labyrinth and the wisest have only found a partial clue to it.
George S. Hillard--a brilliant amateur sort of writer, orator and
editor--came to visit Hawthorne one of the last Sundays while he
remained in the Old Manse, and the two went together to spend the
forenoon in Walden woods, calling on Emerson by the way to inquire what
the best road might be. Emerson prudently detained them until after the
townspeople were safely in their churches, and then accompanied them. It
is a pleasant retrospect to think of those two mighty men, so like and
yet so unlike, together with their amiable and gifted friend, going off
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.
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