Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/335

Rh of his thoughts for his own expansion, he had hoped to share these with a small and sympathetic reading-circle. With an undertone of resignation, he wrote;—

On no account would he desecrate his soul by accepting compromises or subsidies, that he might appear in print. His work was his religion. The literary impulse was an early one but he did not live in an age when literature was considered a possible profession. He added his name to the list of pioneers, led by Charles Brockden Brown, Philip Freneau, and others, who, with many discouragements and sturdy patience, established literature among the professions in America. In a letter to his sister Helen, in 1840, he had hinted at this aspiration,—"An honest book's the noblest work of man. It will do the world no good hereafter, if you merely exist, and pass life smoothly or roughly; but to have thoughts and write them down, that helps greatly." With a view of possible use as literary material, as well as contemporary record of thoughts and life, he began those famous journals which have furnished the nucleus of all his books,