Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/237

Rh referred to the matter in his journal and letters as "a liberty for which the gold of California could not requite me."

With such independence and self-reliance, that sometimes savored of hauteur, with his broad, scholarly, religious speculations, he showed throughout life a childlike faith as perfect as that of Browning or Whittier. In his first book is included the poem of trust, deemed worthy a place in Mr. Stedman's Anthology, with its simple expression of faith,—

In a letter to Mr. Blake in 1848 are the words,—"I know that another is who knows more than I, who takes an interest in me, whose creature and yet whose kindred in one sense am I. I know that things work well. I have heard no bad news." Despite the shams and wrongs of society, despite the affronts to God and man from daily evil, there is ever a sure optimism in Thoreau's teachings. "Walden" closes with an outburst of joyful promise,—"Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."