No More Learning

Many of
these friends were frequent visitors in Concord. Alcott moved thither
after the breaking up of his school. Hawthorne also came to dwell there.
Henry Thoreau, a Concord youth, greatly interested Emerson; indeed,
became for a year or two a valued inmate of his home, and helped and
instructed him in the labors of the garden and little farm, which
gradually grew to ten acres, the chief interest of which for the owner
was his trees, which he loved and tended. Emerson helped introduce his
countrymen to the teachings of Carlyle, and edited his works here, where
they found more readers than at home.

In 1847 Emerson was invited to read lectures in England, and remained
abroad a year, visiting France also in her troublous times. English
Traits was a result. Just before this journey he had collected and
published his poems. A later volume, called May Day, followed in 1867.
He had written verses from childhood, and to the purified expression of
poetry he, through life, eagerly aspired. He said, "I like my poems
best because it is not I who write them. " In 1866 the degree of Doctor
of Laws was conferred on him by Harvard University, and he was chosen an
Overseer. In 1867 he again gave the Phi Beta Kappa oration, and in 1870
and 1871 gave courses in Philosophy in the University Lectures at
Cambridge.

Emerson was not merely a man of letters. He recognized and did the
private and public duties of the hour.
He exercised a wide hospitality
to souls as well as bodies. Eager youths came to him for rules, and went
away with light. Reformers, wise and unwise, came to him, and were
kindly received. They were often disappointed that they could not
harness him to their partial and transient scheme. He said, My reforms
include theirs: I must go my way; help people by my strength, not by my
weakness. But if a storm threatened, he felt bound to appear and show
his colors. Against the crying evils of his time he worked bravely in
his own way. He wrote to President Van Buren against the wrong done to
the Cherokees, dared speak against the idolized Webster, when he
deserted the cause of Freedom, constantly spoke of the iniquity of
slavery, aided with speech and money the Free State cause in Kansas,
was at Phillips's side at the antislavery meeting in 1861 broken up by
the Boston mob, urged emancipation during the war.

He enjoyed his Concord home and neighbors, served on the school
committee for years, did much for the Lyceum, and spoke on the town's
great occasions. He went to all town-meetings, oftener to listen and
admire than to speak, and always took pleasure and pride in the people.
In return he was respected and loved by them.

Emerson's house was destroyed by fire in 1872, and the incident exposure
and fatigue did him harm. His many friends insisted on rebuilding his
house and sending him abroad to get well. He went up the Nile, and
revisited England, finding old and new friends, and, on his return, was
welcomed and escorted home by the people of Concord. After this time he
was unable to write. His old age was quiet and happy among his family
and friends.