FROM WALDEN
BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is most often
associated with his experiment in simple living
detailed in his memoir Walden. An active voice in
politics, Thoreau took his mentor Emerson’s
philosophy out into the real world and tested its
implications. A controversial figure during his lifetime
(and since his death), Thoreau’s enigmatic personality
might best be summarized by one of the men who
knew him best, Ralph Waldo Emerson: "He was bred
to no profession; he never married; he lived alone; he
never went to church; he never voted; he refused to
pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank no
wine, he never knew the use of tobacco and, though a
naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. When asked
at dinner what dish he preferred, he answered, 'the
nearest.'"