Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/146

122 he proposed. He offered no scheme; rather he denied such intent in "Walden";—"I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would that each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead." Could other words more fully proclaim his individualism and disclaim his dogmatism? Could any words more fully declare that this residence was an experiment and only that? In a nugget, he summarized his purpose,—"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."

Thoreau thus represented the theoretical inquiries of the Transcendentalists regarding the simplification of life and the real freedom of action and will. He was, also, deeply concerned with the practical question of sufficient income to maintain his needs and, at the same time, give him leisure to study and expand mentally and spiritually. With his proud, exact disposition, he was always industrious in the true meaning of the term, and punctilious about debts. He had tried teaching,