An original hand-colored relief engraving with the well-known Thoreau quote from "Slavery in Massachusetts",1854, printed letterpress, in the form of a broadside measuring 10" x 20 1/2" by Abigail Rorer at The Lone Oak Press, her private press in Petersham, MAssachusetts. The quote reads: "It chanced the other day that I scented a white waterlily, and a season I had waited for had arrived. It is the emblem of purity. It bursts up so pure and fair to the eye, and so sweet to the scent, as if to show us what purity and sweetness reside in, and can be extracted from, the slime and muck of earth. I think I have plucked the first one that has opened for a mile. What confirmation of our hopes is in the fragrance of this flower! I shall not so soon despair of the world for it [...]. It suggests what kind of laws have prevailed longest and widest, and still prevail, and that the time may come when man's deeds will smell as sweet." Abigail Rorer is the illustrator of Thoreau's "Faith in a Seed", "Wild Fruits", and "Thoreau's Country" by David Foster. The broadside is in an edition of 80. Shipping costs are extra:in the US, $5.00- outside the US, $10.00.