Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/360

324 on Ossa, to reach, heaven so." This was another trait which he shared with Carlyle. One must appreciate this underlying element in many of Thoreau's statements, or he will miss not alone the pithiness but often the meaning. A good example of extended hyperbole that does not veil the real truth, for this is always patent to a reader of in sight, is the record given by him in 1848, for his classbook, now in the college library:—"Am not married. I don't know whether mine is a profession or a trade, or what not. It is not yet learned, and in every instance has been practised before being studied. The mercantile part of it was begun by myself alone. It is not one but legion. I will give you some of the monster's heads. I am a Schoolmaster, a private Tutor, a Surveyor, a Gardener, a Farmer, a Painter, (I mean a House Painter) a Carpenter, a Mason, a Day-laborer, a Pencil-maker, a Glasspaper-maker, a Writer, and sometimes, a Poetaster. If you will act the part of Iolus, and apply a hot iron to any of these heads, I shall be greatly obliged to you. My present occupation is to answer such orders as may be expected from so general advertisement as the above. That is, if I see fit, which is not always the case, for I have found out a way to live without what is commonly called employment or industry, attractive or otherwise.