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The Hound, the Bay Horse, and the Turtledove: A Study of Thoreau and Voltaire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Edith Peairs
Edith Peairs*
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
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Extract

We may search Henry D. Thoreau's writings in vain for the name of Voltaire, or for a hint of influence by him. However, it is impossible to make a parallel study of the lives and works of these men without seeing many similarities. Thoreau was not accustomed to naming the source of his ideas. His writings are full of quotations, and he seldom takes the trouble of telling his readers where he found them. If we consider these two men side by side, we find, in spite of striking divergence, that the points of contact or likeness are more prevailing than are the points of difference.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , September 1937 , pp. 863 - 869
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1937

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References

1 Odell Shepard, The Heart of Thoreau's Journals (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1927), p. 147.

2 George R. Havens, Le Dictionnaire Philosophique, Selections from Voltaire (New York: The Century Publishing Company, 1930), p. 361.

3 William E. Channing, Thoreau, Poet-Naturalist (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873), p. 41.

4 Waiden, by Henry David Thoreau, with introduction and notes by Francis H. Allen, Associate editor of Thoreau's Journal (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1910), p. 18.

5 The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1904), x, 476.

6 (A. H. Japp), Thoreau: His Life and Works (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1877), p. 145.

7 John Burroughs, “Essay on Thoreau,” Century Magazine, ii (July, 1882), 368.

8 Condorcet, Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1879), xxi, 37–46.

9 Letters of H. D. Thoreau, edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1888), p. 102.