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Rh with his principles, the actual contradictions are few and, in many cases, a careful and honest study of the circumstances and motives reveals a sure, sincere accord with his basal creed. Apart, however, from the question of his practical experiences, his propositions and suggestions for modern living are of great interest and of increasing value to the thoughtful student of civilization. At Walden, as throughout life, Thoreau never advocated abstinence as regards the necessary wants of civilized life. He never urged selfish seclusion from human relations and services; rather he made his plea for temperate, careful adjustment of time and necessaries that each faculty might be duly nourished. His inheritance would forbid his acquiescence in any form of life that savored of the unclean or barbaric. Independent of fashions in dress, he was always neatly clad; indifferent to many courses of fancy viands, he was able to cook and serve plain foods with skill and taste; deploring foolish conceits and expense in architecture, he was ever careful to construct with regularity and grace. In short, as Mr. Salt has well said, he was "never a nullifier" but always "a simplifier of civilization." The deprivations due to poverty could be nullified by the doctrines of simplicity and contentment; the defects and shams of society were