Laudator Temporis Acti

Walter Harding's very useful Variorum Walden (New York: Washington Square Press, 1963) gives the sources of many obscure quotations and allusions in Thoreau's book. But the origins of some passages escaped Harding's best efforts. Perhaps some reader of this blog will win fame and fortune (well, maybe just fame) by tracking down a hitherto unknown source.

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Chapter 1 (Economy):

Hippocrates has even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with the ends of the fingers, neither shorter nor longer.

Harding:

I have searched numerous editions of the works of Hippocrates, but have been unable to find any such reference. Is it possible that Thoreau is confusing him with some other ancient author?

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Chapter 2 (Where I Lived, and What I Lived For):

The Vedas say, "All intelligences wake with the morning."

Harding:

I have been unable to locate this quotation more precisely.

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Chapter 2 (Where I Lived, and What I Lived For):

I have read in a Hindoo book, that "there was a king's son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which he lived. One of his father's ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul," continues the Hindoo philosopher, "from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme."

Harding:

I have been unable to locate this quotation more precisely.

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Chapter 5 (Solitude):

I have heard of a man lost in the woods and dying of famine and exhaustion at the foot of a tree, whose loneliness was relieved by the grotesque visions with which, owing to bodily weakness, his diseased imagination surrounded him, and which he believed to be real.

Harding:

I have been unable to discover the source of this story.

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Chapter 6 (Visitors):

Men of almost every degree of wit called on me in the migrating season. Some who had more wits than they knew what to do with; runaway slaves with plantation manners, who listened from time to time, like the fox in the fable, as if they heard the hounds a-baying on their track, and looked at me beseechingly, as much as to say, --

"O Christian, will you send me back?"

Harding:

I have been unable to discover the source of this quotation.

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Chapter 7 (The Bean-Field):

Moreover, this being one of those "worn-out and exhausted lay fields which enjoy their sabbath," had perchance, as Sir Kenelm Digby thinks likely, attracted "vital spirits" from the air. I harvested twelve bushels of beans.

Harding:

I have been unable to locate this quotation more precisely.

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Chapter 9 (The Ponds):

Some consider blue "to be the color of pure water, whether liquid or solid."

Harding:

I have been unable to discover the source of this definition.

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Chapter 15 (Winter Animals):

Whichever side you walk in the woods the partridge bursts away on whirring wings, jarring the snow from the dry leaves and twigs on high, which comes sifting down in the sunbeams like golden dust, for this brave bird is not to be scared by winter. It is frequently covered up by drifts, and, it is said, "sometimes plunges from on wing into the soft snow, where it remains concealed for a day or two."

Harding:

I have been unable to find the source of this quotation. Prof. Shanley informs me that in the Walden manuscript, the quotation is attributed to Audubon, but I have been unable to trace it further.

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Chapter 16 (The Pond in Winter):

"O Prince, our eyes contemplate with admiration and transmit to the soul the wonderful and varied spectacle of this universe. The night veils without doubt a part of this glorious creation; but day comes to reveal to us this great work, which extends from earth even into the plains of the ether."

Harding:

I have been unable to find the source of this quotation but suspect it to be a Hindu work.

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Chapter 18 (Conclusion):

There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection....The material was pure, and his art was pure; how could the result be other than wonderful?

Harding:

I have been unable to find any source for this legend, and all earlier annotators have assumed that it was original with Thoreau.

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Chapter 18 (Conclusion):

Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say. "Tell the tailors," said he, "to remember to make a knot in their thread before they take the first stitch." His companion's prayer is forgotten.

Harding:

I have been unable to find any further clue to the identity of Tom Hyde, except for the fact that in a manuscript in the Huntington Library, Thoreau adds here: "You Boston folks & Roxbury people will want Tom Hyde to mend your kettle," -- which might imply that he was a character in eastern Massachusetts folklore or fact.

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Chapter 18 (Conclusion):

There are the Records of the Philosophical Societies, and the public Eulogies of Great Men! It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue. "Yes, we have done great deeds, and sung divine songs, which shall never die" -- that is, as long as we can remember them.

Harding:

I have been unable to trace the source of this quotation.