Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the originaldocument have been preserved.Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
The following alternate spellings were noted, but retained:
- contemporaries and cotemporaries
- Bramins and Brahmins
- Shakspeare and Shakespeare
- Sanskrit and Sanscrit
- Catskills and Caatskills
THE WRITINGS OF
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
IN TWENTY VOLUMES
VOLUME VII
MANUSCRIPT EDITION
LIMITED TO SIX HUNDRED COPIES
NUMBER ——
THE WRITINGS OF
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
JOURNAL
EDITED BY BRADFORD TORREY
I
1837-1846
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
MDCCCCVI
COPYRIGHT 1906 BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
All rights reserved
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Aside from the use Thoreau himself made of his Journalin writing his more formal works, the first extensivepublication of the Journal material began in 1881 with"Early Spring in Massachusetts." This volume consistedof extracts covering the month of March and parts ofFebruary and April, arranged according to the days ofthe month, the entries for the successive years followingone another under each day. It was edited by Thoreau'sfriend Mr. H. G. O. Blake, to whom the Journal wasbequeathed by Miss Sophia Thoreau, who died in 1876.It was succeeded in 1884 by a volume entitled "Summer,"which in reality covered only the early summer,and that, in turn, by "Winter" in 1887 and "Autumn"in 1892, all made by Mr. Blake on the same principle.These volumes, from the first to the last, were receivedwith delight by the ever-increasing body of Thoreau'sadmirers, but they have served to whet rather than satisfythe appetite of readers, and it has long been evidentthat they ought not to stand alone as representing thisimportant phase of Thoreau's activity. The publisherstherefore gladly seized the opportunity afforded, whenthe Journal, on the death of Mr. Blake, passed into thehands of Mr. E. H. Russell of Worcester, who wasdesirous of giving it to the public in its entirety, and theyat once made arrangements with him to bring it out inextenso as soon as the long labor of copying and comparingthe manuscripts could be completed. As editorthe publishers have been so fortunate as to secureMr. Bradford Torrey, who is eminently qualified toconsider Thoreau both as a writer and as an observerof nature.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
Concerning this first practically complete printi