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186 complains that I do not take his jokes. I took them before he had done uttering them and went my way."

In his desire to be independent and simple in tastes and relations, he was not infrequently ill-poised and combative. He lacked that grace of mien and courteous attention to strangers which characterized Emerson, whose nature was more teachable and less intense than Thoreau's. When the latter recognized that his purpose was just, he did not quietly circumvent obstacles by the way-side but "split rocks" till he attained his end. Dignity and reserve seemed to him prime requisites of true manliness. Washington was to him "a proper Puritan hero." Thoreau admired his "erectness," his simplicity and, above all, his unswerving dignity and silence. On the other hand, few passages in his journal show greater personal annoyance than the recorded visits of three ultra-reformers, with their cant and familiar "greasy kindness." With reason, he resented their tone of intimacy towards him, their lack of "healthy reserve" and their boasted ability "to dive into his inmost depths." With genuine, chivalrous reverence for all women who performed loyal, sincere service to any work of progress, he could not refrain from a mild sarcasm upon the woman lecturer, who