Just as living in concord with one's self is a fundament of a life of peace and true liberty, so has Concord, Massachusetts played a vital role in the history of the United States of America.

Concord is twenty five miles west of Boston, and it was here that some of the first battles of the Revolutionary War took place. It was also here that, less than a hundred years after the Revolutionary war, the New England transcendentalists created some of the most numinous and quintessentially American literature the world has ever seen.

It was on pages that America's Revolutionary War would continue to be fought for the first half of the 19th century, and like the military actions beginning in 1776, the literary revolution would begin in Concord.

For 19th century literary authors, there was one giant who stood above all of their fellow contemporaries, Thomas Carlyle. And for Carlyle, there was likewise one grand hero of literature alive in that time, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Here in Concord the New England transcendentalists gathered around Emerson, and Emerson's main intellectual partner, Henry David Thoreau, would produce the intellectual/spiritual group's most famous work, Walden Pond.

Walden pond is in the eastern part of Concord. To get there, we took one of the best roads ever made, route 2.

Thoreau lived on Walden pond for two years. Towards the end of the second year, modern industry began to intrude on his habitat, as workers shattered the peace of the pond by cutting down all of the trees surrounding the railroad tracks they were laying.

But today, that peace has returned to the pond, and Walden is one of the favorite swimming holes of the residents of this part of the state.

Tourists come not just for the scenery, but to see the foundation stones of Thoreau's cabin. Nearby there is a stone with the words from one of Thoreau's most famous passages engraved in it. It reads: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Thoreau chose Walden for the setting of his pursuit of this goal for the same reason the pond has so many visitors each year: The forceful sense of peace that surrounds every inch of this pond.

But, hey, speaking of the essential facts of life, I learned at Walden that my feet resemble Bilbo Baggins' to a noteworthy degree.