ld evolve some deep lesson, and
should possess physical substance enough to stand alone. In
furtherance of my design, and as if to leave me no pretext for
not fulfilling it, there was, in the rear of the house, the
most delightful little nook of a study that ever offered its
snug seclusion to a scholar. It was here that Emerson wrote
'Nature;' for he was then an inhabitant of the Manse, and used
to watch the Assyrian dawn and the Paphian sunset and moonrise,
from the summit of our eastern hill. When I first saw the room,
its walls were blackened with the smoke of unnumbered years,
and made still blacker by the grim prints of puritan ministers
that hung around. These worthies looked strangely like bad
angels, or, at least, like men who had wrestled so continually
and so sternly with the devil, that somewhat of his sooty
fierceness had been imparted to their own visages. They had all
vanished now; a cheerful coat of paint, and gold tinted paper
hangings, lighted up the small apartment; while the shadow of a
willow-tree, that swept against the overhanging eaves,
attempered the cheery western sunshine. In place of the grim
prints there was the sweet and lovely head of one of Raphael's
Madonnas, and two pleasant little pictures of the Lake of Como.
The only other decorations were a purple vase of flowers,
always fresh, and a bronze one containing graceful ferns. My
books (few, and by no means choice; for they were chiefly such
waifs as chance had thrown in my way) stood in order about the
room, seldom to be disturbed."

In his home at Concord, thus happily described, in the midst of a few
congenial friends, Hawthorne passed three years; and, "in a spot so
sheltered from the turmoil of life's ocean," he says, "three years
hasten away with a noiseless flight, as the breezy sunshine chases the
cloud-shadows across the depths of a still valley." But at length his
repose was invaded by that "spirit of improvement," which is so
constantly marring the happiness of quiet-loving people, and he was
compelled to look out for another residence.

"Now came hints, growing more and more distinct, that the owner
of the old house was pining for his native air. Carpenters next
appeared, making a tremendous racket among the outbuildings,
strewing green grass with pine shavings and chips of chesnut