He saw too
far to be despondent, though his vivid sympathies and shaping
imagination often made him sad in behalf of others. He also perceived
morbidness wherever it existed instantly, as if by the illumination of
his own steady cheer."
His closest friends, too, speak with delight of his genial warmth and
ease in converse with them. He could seldom talk freely with more than
two or three, however, on account of his constitutional shyness, and
perhaps of a peculiarly concentrative cast of mind; though he possessed
a ready adaptability. "I talk with everybody: to Mrs. T---- good sense;
to Mary, good sense, with a mixture of fun; to Mrs. G----, sentiment,
romance, and nonsense." [Footnote: American Note-Books, 1837.] A
gentleman who was with him at Brook farm, and knew him well, tells me
that his presence was very attractive, and that he inspired great esteem
among all at the farm by his personal qualities. On a walking trip to
Wachusett, which they once made together, Hawthorne showed a great
interest in sitting in the bar-rooms of country taverns, to listen to
the talk of the attendant farmers and villagers. The manner in which he
was approached had a great deal to do with his response. If treated
simply and wisely, he would answer cordially; but he was entirely
dismayed, as a rule, by those who made demonstrations of admiration or
awe. "Why do they treat me so?" he asked a friend, in one case of this
sort. "Why, they're afraid of you." "But I tremble at _them_," he
said.
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