Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/242

214 blessings in joyful industry, nature-comradeship, simple tastes, and spiritual refreshment and serenity. Many of the conditions of contemporaneous life evidence the sure vision and the moral insight of this philosopher. In retrospect, as well as in prophecy, we can recognize his practical wisdom, we can still gain recuperation and inspiration in his messages, that seem to have added pertinence and potency in these later decades, thrilling with the spirit of reform for the sociological and industrial evils that confront this new century.