One was like sunshine, the other shadow. Emerson was
transparent, and wished to be so, he had nothing to conceal from friend
or enemy. Hawthorne was simply impenetrable. Emerson was cordial and
moderately sympathetic. Hawthorne was reserved, but his sympathies were
as profound as the human soul itself. To study human nature as Hawthorne
and Shakespeare did, and to make models of their acquaintances for works
of fiction, Emerson would have considered a sin; while the evolution of
sin and its effect on character was the principal study of Hawthorne's
life. One was an optimist, and the other what is sometimes unjustly
called a pessimist: that is, one who looks facts in the face and sees
people as they are. Hawthorne could not have felt quite comfortable in
the presence of a man who asked such searching questions as Emerson
frequently did, and Emerson could scarcely have found satisfaction in
conversing with one who never had any opinion to express.
A good many people claimed to have been Hawthorne's friends after his
death who were sufficiently afraid of him while he was alive. He does
not appear to have ever had but two very intimate friends, Franklin
Pierce and George S. Hillard, both remarkably amiable and sympathetic
men,--qualities to which they owed equally their successes and failures
in life. Ex-president Pierce used to come to Concord and carry Hawthorne
off to the White Mountains, the Isles of Shoals or Philadelphia, just as
two college-students will drop their books and go off somewhere to have
a good time.
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