Henry David Thoreau’s last days: quote from Joseph Goldstein’s ‘Mindfulness’ book.
“He died of tuberculosis at the early age of forty-four. In a biography of his life, his friends described his frame of mind. Henry was never affected, never reached by [his illness]. . . .
Very often I heard him tell his visitors that he enjoyed existence as well as ever. He remarked to me that there was as much comfort in perfect disease as in perfect health, the mind always conforming to the condition of the body. The thought of death, he said, could not begin to trouble him. . . .
During his long illness, I never heard a murmur escape him, or the slightest wish expressed to remain with us; his perfect contentment was truly wonderful. . . .
Some of his more orthodox friends and relatives tried to prepare him for death, but with little satisfaction to themselves. . . .
[W]hen his Aunt Louisa asked him if he had made his peace with God, he answered, “I did not know we had ever quarreled, Aunt.”
Goldstein, Joseph (2013-11-01). Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening (Kindle Locations 721-731). Sounds True. Kindle Edition.
In Joseph’s footnotes, the story is attributed to Walter Harding, The Days of Henry David Thoreau (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), 464– 465.