THOREAU. 145 



THOREA U. 



WHAT contemporary, if he was in the fighting period of his 

 life (since Nature sets limits about her conscription for 

 spiritual fields, as the state does in physical warfare), will ever 

 forget what was somewhat vaguely called the Transcendental 

 Movement of thirty years ago ? Apparently set astirring by 

 Carlyle s essays on the * Signs of the Times/ and on History, 

 the final and more immediate impulse seemed to be given by 

 * Sartor Resartus. At least the republication in Boston of that 

 wonderful Abraham a Sancta Clara sermon on Lear s text of the 

 miserable forked radish gave the signal for a sudden mental and 

 moral mutiny. Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile ! was shouted on 

 all hands with every variety of emphasis, and by voices of every 

 conceivable pitch, representing the three sexes of men, women, 

 and Lady Mary Wortley Montagues. The nameless eagle of 

 the tree Ygdrasil was about to sit at last, and wild-eyed enthu 

 siasts rushed from all sides, each eager to thrust under the mystic 

 bird that chalk egg from which the new and fairer Creation was 

 to be hatched in due time. Redcunt Saturnia regna so far 

 was certain, though in what shape, or by what methods, was 

 still a matter of debate. Every possible form of intellectual and 

 physical dyspepsia brought forth its gospel. Bran had its 

 prophets, and the presartorial simplicity of Adam its martyrs, 

 tailored impromptu from the tar-pot by incensed neighbours, and 

 sent forth to illustrate the &amp;lt; feathered Mercury, as defined by 

 Webster and Worcester. Plainness of speech was carried to a 

 pitch that would have taken away the breath of George Fox ; 

 and even swearing had its evangelists, who answered a simple 

 inquiry after their health with an elaborate ingenuity of impre 

 cation that might have been honourably mentioned by Marl- 

 borough in general orders. Everybody had a mission (with a 

 capital M) to attend to everybody-else s business. No brain but 

 had its private maggot, which must have found pitiably short 

 commons sometimes. Not a few impecunious zealots abjured 

 the use of money (unless earned by other people), professing to 

 live on the internal revenues of the spirit. Some had an assu 

 rance of instant millennium so soon as hooks and eyes should 

 be substituted for buttons. Communities were established where 

 everything was to be common but common-sense. Men re 

 nounced their old gods, and hesitated only whether to bestow 

 their furloughed allegiance on Thor or Budh. Conventions 



