When they parted at the house of young Rice’s father, Emerson invited the boys to come and see him at the Allen farm, in the afternoon.  They came to a piece of woods, and, as they entered it, took their hats off.  “Boys,” said Emerson, “here we recognize the presence of the Universal Spirit.  The breeze says to us in its own language, How d’ ye do?  How d’ ye do? and we have already taken our hats off and are answering it with our own How d’ ye do?  How d’ ye do?  And all the waving branches of the trees, and all the flowers, and the field of corn yonder, and the singing brook, and the insect and the bird,—­every living thing and things we call inanimate feel the same divine universal impulse while they join with us, and we with them, in the greeting which is the salutation of the Universal Spirit.”

We perceive the same feeling which pervades many of Emerson’s earlier Essays and much of his verse, in these long-treasured reminiscences of the poetical improvisation with which the two boys were thus unexpectedly favored.  Governor Rice continues:—­

“You know what a captivating charm there always was in Emerson’s presence, but I can never tell you how this line of thought then impressed a country boy.  I do not remember anything about the remainder of that walk, nor of the after-incidents of that day,—­I only remember that I went home wondering about that mystical dream of the Universal Spirit, and about what manner of man he was under whose influence I had for the first time come....

“The interview left impressions that led me into new channels of thought which have been a life-long pleasure to me, and, I doubt not, taught me somewhat how to distinguish between mere theological dogma and genuine religion in the soul.”

In the summer of 1834 Emerson became a resident of Concord, Massachusetts, the town of his forefathers, and the place destined to be his home for life.  He first lived with his venerable connection, Dr. Ripley, in the dwelling made famous by Hawthorne as the “Old Manse.”  It is an old-fashioned gambrel-roofed house, standing close to the scene of the Fight on the banks of the river.  It was built for the Reverend William Emerson, his grandfather.  In one of the rooms of this house Emerson wrote “Nature,” and in the same room, some years later, Hawthorne wrote “Mosses from an Old Manse.”

The place in which Emerson passed the greater part of his life well deserves a special notice.  Concord might sit for its portrait as an ideal New England town.  If wanting in the variety of surface which many other towns can boast of, it has at least a vision of the distant summits of Monadnock and Wachusett.  It has fine old woods, and noble elms to give dignity to its open spaces.  Beautiful ponds, as they modestly call themselves,—­one of which, Walden, is as well known in our literature as Windermere in that of Old England,—­lie quietly in their clean basins.  And through the green meadows runs,