U6 THOREA U. 



white or red, and this simply because he has not studied the 

 pale-faced variety. 



This notion of an absolute originality, as if one could 

 have a patent-right in it, is an absurdity. A man cannot 

 escape in thought, any more than he can in language, from 

 the past and the present. As no one ever invents a word, 

 and yet language somehow grows by general contribution 

 and necessity, so it is with thought. Mr. Thoreau seems 

 to us to insist in public on going back to flint and steel, 

 when there is a match-box in his pocket which he knows 

 very well how to use at a pinch. Originality consists in 

 power of digesting and assimilating thought, so that they 

 become part of our life and substance. Montaigne, for 

 example, is one of the most original of authors, though he 

 helped himself to ideas in every direction. But they turn 

 to blood and colouring in his style, and give a freshness of 

 complexion that is for ever charming. In Thoreau much 

 seems yet to be foreign and unassimilated, showing itself in 

 symptoms of indigestion. A preacher-up of Nature, we 

 now and then detect under the surly and stoic garb some 

 thing of the sophist and the sentimentaliser. We are far 

 from implying that this was conscious on his part. But it 

 is much easier for a man to impose on himself when he 

 measures only with himself. A greater familiarity with 

 ordinary men would have done Thoreau good, by showing 

 him how many fine qualities are common to the race. The 

 radical vice of his theory of life was, that he confounded 

 physical with spiritual remoteness from men. One is far 

 enough withdrawn from his fellows if he keep himself clear 

 of their weaknesses. He is not so truly withdrawn as 

 exiled, if he refuse to share in their strength. &quot; Solitude,&quot; 

 says Oowley, &quot;can be well fitted and set right but upon a 

 very few persons. They must have enough knowledge of 

 the world to see the vanity of it, and enough virtue to 

 despise all vanity.&quot; It is a morbid self-consciousness that 

 pronounces the world of men empty and worthless before 

 trying it, the instinctive evasion of one who is sensible of 

 some innate weakness, and retorts the accusation of it 



