Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/163

Rh contemporaneous decade. It was then one of many experiments for reforming and simplifying conditions of society, for applying transcendental ideas. It was entirely parallel to the communities and sociological ventures of the age. It was the experiment of a philosopher who had no affiliations with communal plans but who sought their aim,—expansion of all the faculties and reduction of the demands of society to the lowest terms. With reference to the "Walden incident, as revelation of the character of Thoreau, no words are more pertinent than the simple, sincere lines of his poet-friend applied, as were many of Channing's stanzas, to both Emerson and Thoreau:—