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
young lady in her first season, with the will of a Titan, and a mind
like a crown-glass mirror, and you have Nathaniel Hawthorne. While he
was in a state of observation, the expression of his face reflected
everything that was going on about him; in his reflective moods, it was
like looking in at the window of a dark room, or perhaps a
picture-gallery; and if any accident disturbed him his look was
something like a cracked pane of glass.
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