Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/152

128 assiduous study of the best classics, preparation for later authorship and lectures. In the section, entitled "Higher Laws," he writes,—"I found in myself, and still find, an instinct towards a higher, or, as it is named, a spiritual life, as do most men, and another towards a primitive, rank and savage one, and I reverence them both." Here was resident the dual pleasure in this Walden experience. It was essentially an oasis in a life of work. It was his "Sabbatical year," a dream yet a realization, an anticipation yet a preparation for nobler, fuller life. The life had been opened, the time of refreshment and preparation must end, and so he explains,—"I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps, it seemed to me that I had several lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one."

Thus far, we have reviewed Thoreau's life at Walden in its subjective aspect, and to many readers this would seem the only possible perspective. If we refuse to consider him as a hermit, however, another opinion must prevail. Speaking personally he declared,—"My life itself was become my amusement and never ceased to be novel." The words are as applicable to the objective side of the life, whose novelty has been the subject of unending criticism. In "Walden" he offers a few