Status
Available
Publication
New York : Modern Library, c2000.
Description
With their call for "simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!”, for self-honesty, and for harmony with nature, the writings of Henry David Thoreau are perhaps the most influential philosophical works in all American literature. The selections in this volume represent Thoreau at his best. Included in their entirety are Walden, his indisputable masterpiece, and his two great arguments for nonconformity, Civil Disobedience and Life Without Principle. A lifetime of brilliant observation of nature--and of himself--is recorded in selections from A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers, Cape Cod, The Maine Woods and The Journal.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
The introduction to the edition I read quoted American philosopher and Harvard professor Stanley Cavell as saying "Emerson and Thoreau... are the founding philosophers of America" and comparable in complexity to Plato. As you can tell from my disparate ratings below, I nevertheless found reading
Walden - This book in particular is often cited as one of the origins of the environmentalist movement. What struck me from the beginning is that Thoreau's a truly impressive writer. I was often entranced by the sheer beauty of the prose even when he was expressing ideas antithetical to my worldview. Frequently I'd come across familiar lines such as the "mass of men live lives of quiet desperation" and "if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps he hears a different drummer." And how can I not appreciate his "Reading" chapter with its lyrical praise of books? The first chapter though, "Economies," often had me lifting a cynical brow. His mantra in the book is simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! And though I can see his point about the futility of yearning after many superfluous things just because they're in fashion, some of his encomiums on his frugality... Well, he's at his worst in the "Baker Farm" chapter where he lectured this poor hard-working Irish immigrant with several children on how he should live. Given Thoreau was squatting on Emerson's land and bringing his laundry home to his mother, it sounded like this guy ranting about how to make ends meet while he's living in his parent's basement rent-free. And all his talk about self-sufficiency and living the natural way? As much as we take such objects for granted today, such things as Thoreau used to make his cabin such as panes of glass, nails, screws, planks, are products of specialization and even industrialization--at least produced cheaply for use of the ordinary men, and I could wish that Thoreau would, if not appreciate that, acknowledge it. I don't resonate with a lot of the book's messages--and was at times bored with Thoreau's lengthy rhapsodies on nature. There's definitely gorgeous writing and food for thought here nevertheless. If you'd call yourself an environmentalist or naturalist I think that's worth adding at least an additional star in rating. 298 pages Four Stars
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - A travelogue of Thoreau's travels on the river with his brother. I've read claims this is second only to Walden in importance among Thoreau's works. I think if you loved Walden, and I mean loved it and you can't get enough Thoreau, by all means read this and the others below--especially if you love Nature studies studded with loads of classical allusions. That said, even though some parts bored me, other parts definitely were worth the read. Especially the chapter "Atlantides" dealing with friendship that featured the line: "It takes two to speak the truth,--one to speak and another to hear." I loved the discussion of Chaucer too. One where I liked the digressions more than the main narrative. 138 pages Three and a Half Stars
Cape Cod - My edition included four of the chapters. The first chapter, "The Shipwreck" was interesting for it's depiction of tragedy but then subverts the seeming compassion of the account in a disconcerting way. "The Wellfleet Oysterman" is interesting for it's title character--an elderly man who can remember the Revolutionary War. "The Highland Light" and "Provincetown" is vintage Thoreau--in other words, I at times found myself bored. 66 pages Two and a Half Stars
The Allegash and East Branch - The final of three essays collected in The Maine Woods. Definitely for those nature groupies who loved all that stuff about the loons and the ants on Walden or just like to revel in a bit of 19th century history. I skimmed. A lot. 92 pages One and a Half Stars
Walking - Thoreau's ode to walking. Reading it I couldn't help but think of a book by Rory Stewart I recently read. The Places in Between recounts Stewart's 22 month walk across Afghanistan beginning weeks after the Taliban fell. Thoreau walks to commune with Nature (definitely with a capital "N.") Stewart to understand the people. I prefer Stewart. 38 pages Two Stars
On Civil Disobedience - This is an enormously influential and eloquent essay. Gandhi said of it that, "It left a deep impression on me" and Martin Luther King also was influenced by it. It doesn't always make for comfortable reading. In its main thrust it seems to support anarchy. I think there's a difference between civil disobedience against a specific unjust law or institution, such as the boycott of the segregated Montgomery buses, or even refusal to fight in what you believe is an unjust war, and to do as Thoreau suggests and refuse to pay taxes altogether. To refuse to pay taxes (unless a specific tax itself or what it specifically is earmarked for is inherently unjust) is to protest government itself, and I'm not quite willing to go that far. Because if the test as to whether I have a moral imperative to refuse to pay taxes is whether I agree with everything the government does, then I can't imagine any government on Earth meeting that standard--for anyone. For a libertarian the issue might be the drug war, a liberal the latest military intervention abroad and for a conservative abortion. And again, it's not simply that Thoreau says you have the right to withhold taxes, but that if you're a person of conscience you must not pay them if you disagree with government policy--and be ready to go to jail for the privilege. Nevertheless, I can appreciate Thoreau's passion on the issue of slavery at the heart of this essay published in 1848. And two of his tax protests even meet my test above. One was a poll tax--which I consider inherently unjust, and the other was earmarked to pay a minister's salary even though Thoreau wasn't a member of the church. And he did spend time in jail as a result. I can't help admire that. Yet I admit in his situation I would have probably just paid the tax. That's part of what makes the essay unsettling--because at times I wondered. Is it so much that I really think Thoreau is wrong--or is it just I don't have his courage? Given how thought-provoking and challenging to complacency I found this work, I can't help but give it top marks. A must read. 28 pages Five stars
Slavery in Massachusetts - A passionate fire-eating speech condemning the state of Massachusetts for it's support of the Fugitive Slave Law. Interesting as a slice of history that demonstrates the incendiary atmosphere that flamed into the American Civil War in less than a decade. Three stars 20 pages
A Plea for Captain John Brown - This was Thoreau's elegy for John Brown, who helped spark the American Civil War. An abolitionist who preached (and practiced) armed resurrection, he was responsible for the murder of several men and has the distinction of being called America's first domestic terrorist. He was obviously Thoreau's hero. He's not mine. Color me unmoved at this panegyric. It's ironic that the man who inspired Tolstoy, Gandhi and Martin Luther King to develop forms of non-violent resistance would count John Brown a hero--and could end this essay calling for "revenge." 28 pages Half Star
Life Without Principle - I found this Thoreau at his very worst. Cranky and a crank, misanthropic and dismissive of work whether of physical labor to make a living or building a commercial enterprise. Anyone, in other words, not living the way he does. Hated it. 21 pages. One Star
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Thoreau a decidedly mixed bag. Given their influence on the environmental movement and non-violent mass protest movements, I'd highly recommend reading Walden and the article "Civil Disobedience" no matter what your personal beliefs. If you then find you really love this man's philosophy and writing style, then... well there sure is plenty more to read. This is one book where my rating suffered from including too much. If it had included just the works mentioned above I'd have added at least a star.Walden - This book in particular is often cited as one of the origins of the environmentalist movement. What struck me from the beginning is that Thoreau's a truly impressive writer. I was often entranced by the sheer beauty of the prose even when he was expressing ideas antithetical to my worldview. Frequently I'd come across familiar lines such as the "mass of men live lives of quiet desperation" and "if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps he hears a different drummer." And how can I not appreciate his "Reading" chapter with its lyrical praise of books? The first chapter though, "Economies," often had me lifting a cynical brow. His mantra in the book is simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! And though I can see his point about the futility of yearning after many superfluous things just because they're in fashion, some of his encomiums on his frugality... Well, he's at his worst in the "Baker Farm" chapter where he lectured this poor hard-working Irish immigrant with several children on how he should live. Given Thoreau was squatting on Emerson's land and bringing his laundry home to his mother, it sounded like this guy ranting about how to make ends meet while he's living in his parent's basement rent-free. And all his talk about self-sufficiency and living the natural way? As much as we take such objects for granted today, such things as Thoreau used to make his cabin such as panes of glass, nails, screws, planks, are products of specialization and even industrialization--at least produced cheaply for use of the ordinary men, and I could wish that Thoreau would, if not appreciate that, acknowledge it. I don't resonate with a lot of the book's messages--and was at times bored with Thoreau's lengthy rhapsodies on nature. There's definitely gorgeous writing and food for thought here nevertheless. If you'd call yourself an environmentalist or naturalist I think that's worth adding at least an additional star in rating. 298 pages Four Stars
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - A travelogue of Thoreau's travels on the river with his brother. I've read claims this is second only to Walden in importance among Thoreau's works. I think if you loved Walden, and I mean loved it and you can't get enough Thoreau, by all means read this and the others below--especially if you love Nature studies studded with loads of classical allusions. That said, even though some parts bored me, other parts definitely were worth the read. Especially the chapter "Atlantides" dealing with friendship that featured the line: "It takes two to speak the truth,--one to speak and another to hear." I loved the discussion of Chaucer too. One where I liked the digressions more than the main narrative. 138 pages Three and a Half Stars
Cape Cod - My edition included four of the chapters. The first chapter, "The Shipwreck" was interesting for it's depiction of tragedy but then subverts the seeming compassion of the account in a disconcerting way. "The Wellfleet Oysterman" is interesting for it's title character--an elderly man who can remember the Revolutionary War. "The Highland Light" and "Provincetown" is vintage Thoreau--in other words, I at times found myself bored. 66 pages Two and a Half Stars
The Allegash and East Branch - The final of three essays collected in The Maine Woods. Definitely for those nature groupies who loved all that stuff about the loons and the ants on Walden or just like to revel in a bit of 19th century history. I skimmed. A lot. 92 pages One and a Half Stars
Walking - Thoreau's ode to walking. Reading it I couldn't help but think of a book by Rory Stewart I recently read. The Places in Between recounts Stewart's 22 month walk across Afghanistan beginning weeks after the Taliban fell. Thoreau walks to commune with Nature (definitely with a capital "N.") Stewart to understand the people. I prefer Stewart. 38 pages Two Stars
On Civil Disobedience - This is an enormously influential and eloquent essay. Gandhi said of it that, "It left a deep impression on me" and Martin Luther King also was influenced by it. It doesn't always make for comfortable reading. In its main thrust it seems to support anarchy. I think there's a difference between civil disobedience against a specific unjust law or institution, such as the boycott of the segregated Montgomery buses, or even refusal to fight in what you believe is an unjust war, and to do as Thoreau suggests and refuse to pay taxes altogether. To refuse to pay taxes (unless a specific tax itself or what it specifically is earmarked for is inherently unjust) is to protest government itself, and I'm not quite willing to go that far. Because if the test as to whether I have a moral imperative to refuse to pay taxes is whether I agree with everything the government does, then I can't imagine any government on Earth meeting that standard--for anyone. For a libertarian the issue might be the drug war, a liberal the latest military intervention abroad and for a conservative abortion. And again, it's not simply that Thoreau says you have the right to withhold taxes, but that if you're a person of conscience you must not pay them if you disagree with government policy--and be ready to go to jail for the privilege. Nevertheless, I can appreciate Thoreau's passion on the issue of slavery at the heart of this essay published in 1848. And two of his tax protests even meet my test above. One was a poll tax--which I consider inherently unjust, and the other was earmarked to pay a minister's salary even though Thoreau wasn't a member of the church. And he did spend time in jail as a result. I can't help admire that. Yet I admit in his situation I would have probably just paid the tax. That's part of what makes the essay unsettling--because at times I wondered. Is it so much that I really think Thoreau is wrong--or is it just I don't have his courage? Given how thought-provoking and challenging to complacency I found this work, I can't help but give it top marks. A must read. 28 pages Five stars
Slavery in Massachusetts - A passionate fire-eating speech condemning the state of Massachusetts for it's support of the Fugitive Slave Law. Interesting as a slice of history that demonstrates the incendiary atmosphere that flamed into the American Civil War in less than a decade. Three stars 20 pages
A Plea for Captain John Brown - This was Thoreau's elegy for John Brown, who helped spark the American Civil War. An abolitionist who preached (and practiced) armed resurrection, he was responsible for the murder of several men and has the distinction of being called America's first domestic terrorist. He was obviously Thoreau's hero. He's not mine. Color me unmoved at this panegyric. It's ironic that the man who inspired Tolstoy, Gandhi and Martin Luther King to develop forms of non-violent resistance would count John Brown a hero--and could end this essay calling for "revenge." 28 pages Half Star
Life Without Principle - I found this Thoreau at his very worst. Cranky and a crank, misanthropic and dismissive of work whether of physical labor to make a living or building a commercial enterprise. Anyone, in other words, not living the way he does. Hated it. 21 pages. One Star
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LibraryThing member SaraPrindiville
Thoreau is my new favorite author. I am going to re-read this book many times in my lifetime. His views on nature, government and everyday life are like no one else's. His observations are profound. It was also great to read about an area I am familiar with.
LibraryThing member TnPeters
This compilation of Thoreau's writings is a national treasure; and this wisdom should be required reading in (preferably the junior year of) high school, and beyond.
Thoreau has influenced more great thinkers, as well as plain citizens of the Earth, than has been fully calculated. His life of 45
Thoreau has influenced more great thinkers, as well as plain citizens of the Earth, than has been fully calculated. His life of 45
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years is markedly representative of both Mother Nature and Humanity. Show Less
LibraryThing member gerleliz
Still hate this book
LibraryThing member amelish
I was going to say something silly and Garden State-y about how Walden changed my life, but am rewording because the experience of reading this book was more like...confirmation. Which is to say, I've chosen a certain way to live that I believe is the right one for me, and reading Walden was like
"So that was a big deal too..."
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being told, "That's right, that's what you need to do. Keep on keeping on, you're heading in the right direction." Except that the life Thoreau writes about is not directional in the least. But you get what I mean."So that was a big deal too..."
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LibraryThing member bexaplex
Walden is an American masterpiece: a story of renewal, and a statement of the individual's responsibility to himself, to society and to the world at large. The seasonal cycle of the book sort of drills down into contemplation, so that you are eased into winter, and deeper thought.
Whenever I pick up
Whenever I pick up
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Walden, I always expect an ecstatic tract a la Muir, and forget how humorous Thoreau is. He uses awful puns, he jibes at his own lack of commercial success, he makes fun of his fellow Concordians. What a wonderful dinner guest he must have been — stubborn and entertaining. Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
On or about July 23, 1846 Henry David Thoreau was detained in Concord for nonpayment of the poll tax, and he spent the night in the Concord Jail. He described his experience in jail thus: "The rooms were whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest, most simply furnished, and
The episode would be little noted but for the essay that Thoreau proceeded to write, an essay that would become one of the great Western statements on the importance of conscience. The essay is now known as "On Civil Disobedience" although its original title was "Resistance to Civil Government". It is short, less than twenty pages in the edition I read, but it lays out Thoreau's thoughts on the nature of Government: where it gets its authority, when it must be resisted, and more.
He begins the essay with the motto, "That government is best which governs least;" and he immediately makes a case for a government that "governs not at all", at least when men are "prepared for it". He will go on to identify three objections that he, and others, have against the government: namely, maintaining a standing army, the mistreatment of native Americans, and the institution of slavery. He claims that the American government has lost some of its integrity and is not worthy of our respect. However he quickly notes that he is not a "no-government man", because "to speak practically and as a citizen" he does not want no-government but merely "better government". That is he wants a government he can respect.
How does he recommend that he and his friends should resist a government that has lost his respect? He does not speak of a "call to arms". He is not a man like John Brown would become in less than a decade; rather he lays out a pacifist strategy of civil resistance to the government. He describes this resistance in several ways throughout the essay, including: refusing allegiance to the state of Massachusetts; receding from government (withdrawing his association with it); resigning your office (for those who have been appointed); refusing to pay taxes; and refusing to serve in an "unjust war" (the Mexican-American war had begun in April, 1846 and would continue until February, 1848).
To a great extent the essay is both anti-war and anti-slavery. Thoreau references sources as disparate as Confucius and the Bible to under gird his arguments. Although he makes an effort to sound practical at times his primary tendency is one of dissociation from the current American government. His rhetoric demonstrates a moral absolutism that is reminiscent of the speeches of William Lloyd Garrison. He is a genuine radical as he makes statements like: "If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself . . . The people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people." He castigates as "the most serious obstacle to reform" those liberals who personally disapprove of slavery or the war yet still support the government. Moreover, he observes that "action from principle . . . is essentially revolutionary". His personal episode in jail is one small example of the consequences of his adherence to principle. "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
These are strong words that suggest why the ideas presented in this essay have continued to have a profound effect until our own day. It is why the essay has influenced subsequent thinkers like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and others. It is why this essay is considered one of the "great essays" of Thoreau's era and our own.
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probably the neatest apartment in the town." He described his fellow inmate ("room-mate") as someone accused of "burning a barn" who had been incarcerated for three months waiting for trial. He was "quite domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated." They each had a window of their own to look out and Thoreau noted that "It was like traveling to a far country, such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one night." The next day some anonymous person paid the tax and Thoreau was once again a free man.The episode would be little noted but for the essay that Thoreau proceeded to write, an essay that would become one of the great Western statements on the importance of conscience. The essay is now known as "On Civil Disobedience" although its original title was "Resistance to Civil Government". It is short, less than twenty pages in the edition I read, but it lays out Thoreau's thoughts on the nature of Government: where it gets its authority, when it must be resisted, and more.
He begins the essay with the motto, "That government is best which governs least;" and he immediately makes a case for a government that "governs not at all", at least when men are "prepared for it". He will go on to identify three objections that he, and others, have against the government: namely, maintaining a standing army, the mistreatment of native Americans, and the institution of slavery. He claims that the American government has lost some of its integrity and is not worthy of our respect. However he quickly notes that he is not a "no-government man", because "to speak practically and as a citizen" he does not want no-government but merely "better government". That is he wants a government he can respect.
How does he recommend that he and his friends should resist a government that has lost his respect? He does not speak of a "call to arms". He is not a man like John Brown would become in less than a decade; rather he lays out a pacifist strategy of civil resistance to the government. He describes this resistance in several ways throughout the essay, including: refusing allegiance to the state of Massachusetts; receding from government (withdrawing his association with it); resigning your office (for those who have been appointed); refusing to pay taxes; and refusing to serve in an "unjust war" (the Mexican-American war had begun in April, 1846 and would continue until February, 1848).
To a great extent the essay is both anti-war and anti-slavery. Thoreau references sources as disparate as Confucius and the Bible to under gird his arguments. Although he makes an effort to sound practical at times his primary tendency is one of dissociation from the current American government. His rhetoric demonstrates a moral absolutism that is reminiscent of the speeches of William Lloyd Garrison. He is a genuine radical as he makes statements like: "If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself . . . The people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people." He castigates as "the most serious obstacle to reform" those liberals who personally disapprove of slavery or the war yet still support the government. Moreover, he observes that "action from principle . . . is essentially revolutionary". His personal episode in jail is one small example of the consequences of his adherence to principle. "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
These are strong words that suggest why the ideas presented in this essay have continued to have a profound effect until our own day. It is why the essay has influenced subsequent thinkers like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and others. It is why this essay is considered one of the "great essays" of Thoreau's era and our own.
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LibraryThing member kylecarroll
Only read Walden and Civil Disobedience. Will update if/when I read the other writings in the collection.
LibraryThing member dianelouise100
I’ve enjoyed reading Walden many times over the years, and this latest reading did not disappoint. Thoreau’s narrator is an exuberant man, a lover of nature, optimistic about the potential of humans for discovering the higher truths of their own natures if they will only make that their
Thoreau wrote Walden while living alone on the shore of Walden Pond in the woods in Concord, Mass. in a house he had built for himself and living solely (so he said) by the work of his hands. He identifies his intended audience as his fellow New Englanders, his Concord neighbors: “I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders, as you who read these pages who are said to live in New England….” Thoreau shares with readers his various observations of and reflections on Nature, human nature included, in chapters loosely following the course of a year, from summer through the following spring. In his role as narrator, Thoreau becomes in turn poet, philosopher, and scientific observer. He is well educated and multilingual. His writing is a joy to read (for this reader, anyway).
His prose is peppered with allusions to classical writings, including those of the ancient Hindus. One of my favorite classical allusions is his description in epic terms of a battle between black ants and red ants, taking place on his window sill, in language reminiscent of Homer—very comical mock epic. He makes use of other classical rhetorical devices: balanced and antithetical sentences, exaggeration, and understatement. This and his liberal wordplay, especially puns, double-entendres, and paradoxes, contribute to Thoreau’s witty style.
His descriptions of Nature, especially of his beloved Walden, are often wonderfully evocative. Here is a passage describing early morning at the pond:
“For the first week, whenever I looked on the pond it impressed me like a tarn high up on the side of a mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle.”
I remember this description every time I see such a scene. Thoreau also includes many passages of more scientific description of Walden and surrounding ponds, taking measurements and offering explanations of different aspects of pond life. The enormous amount of detail he includes in these passages conveys his intense fascination with the ponds and just might, on occasion, send a less fascinated reader to sleep.
Even though I cannot share this faith, I enjoy and am always encouraged by Thoreau’s faith in Nature and in the ability of humankind to discern and live out their individual “higher” natures. This passage, found in the concluding chapter, expresses his faith in words often quoted:
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
I know that Walden will not please everyone, but its boundless enthusiasm and positive confidence please me immensely. If you are a lover of nature and believe that spending time alone in woods or mountains can be nourishing and revealing, you should try Walden. It might please you, too.
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priority, instead of encumbering themselves with the likes of acreage and barns, stores and railroads. I don’t think that Thoreau meant Walden as a “how-to manual”; he is, instead, challenging his readers to examine their own values and prioritize what Thoreau finds truly important: the exploration in their own way of their own individual natures and unique potential. Thoreau wrote Walden while living alone on the shore of Walden Pond in the woods in Concord, Mass. in a house he had built for himself and living solely (so he said) by the work of his hands. He identifies his intended audience as his fellow New Englanders, his Concord neighbors: “I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders, as you who read these pages who are said to live in New England….” Thoreau shares with readers his various observations of and reflections on Nature, human nature included, in chapters loosely following the course of a year, from summer through the following spring. In his role as narrator, Thoreau becomes in turn poet, philosopher, and scientific observer. He is well educated and multilingual. His writing is a joy to read (for this reader, anyway).
His prose is peppered with allusions to classical writings, including those of the ancient Hindus. One of my favorite classical allusions is his description in epic terms of a battle between black ants and red ants, taking place on his window sill, in language reminiscent of Homer—very comical mock epic. He makes use of other classical rhetorical devices: balanced and antithetical sentences, exaggeration, and understatement. This and his liberal wordplay, especially puns, double-entendres, and paradoxes, contribute to Thoreau’s witty style.
His descriptions of Nature, especially of his beloved Walden, are often wonderfully evocative. Here is a passage describing early morning at the pond:
“For the first week, whenever I looked on the pond it impressed me like a tarn high up on the side of a mountain, its bottom far above the surface of other lakes, and, as the sun arose, I saw it throwing off its nightly clothing of mist, and here and there, by degrees, its soft ripples or its smooth reflecting surface was revealed, while the mists, like ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction into the woods, as at the breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle.”
I remember this description every time I see such a scene. Thoreau also includes many passages of more scientific description of Walden and surrounding ponds, taking measurements and offering explanations of different aspects of pond life. The enormous amount of detail he includes in these passages conveys his intense fascination with the ponds and just might, on occasion, send a less fascinated reader to sleep.
Even though I cannot share this faith, I enjoy and am always encouraged by Thoreau’s faith in Nature and in the ability of humankind to discern and live out their individual “higher” natures. This passage, found in the concluding chapter, expresses his faith in words often quoted:
“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
I know that Walden will not please everyone, but its boundless enthusiasm and positive confidence please me immensely. If you are a lover of nature and believe that spending time alone in woods or mountains can be nourishing and revealing, you should try Walden. It might please you, too.
Show Less