BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAU. 15 



hands fast enough just a dozen pencils at every grasp. 

 He was a good swimmer, runner, skater, boatman, 

 and would probably outwalk most countrymen in a 

 day s journey. And the relation of body to mind 

 was still finer than we have indicated. He said he \ 

 wanted every stride his legs made. The length of 

 his walk uniformly made the length of his writing. 

 If shut up in the house, he did not write at all. 



He had a strong common sense, like that which 

 Rose Flammock, the weaver s daughter, in Scott s 

 romance, commends in her father, as resembling a 

 yardstick, which, whilst it measures dowlas and dia 

 per, can equally well measure tapestry and cloth of 

 gold. He had always a new resource. When I was 

 planting forest-trees, and had procured half a peck of 

 acorns, he said that only a small portion of them 

 would be sound, and proceeded to examine them, and 

 select the sound ones. But finding this took time, he 

 said, &quot; I think, if you put them all into water, the 

 good ones will sink ; &quot; which experiment we tried 

 with success. He could plan a garden, or a house, or 

 a barn ; would have been competent to lead a &quot; Pacific 

 Exploring Expedition &quot; ; could give judicious counsel 

 in the gravest private or public affairs. 



He lived for the day, not cumbered and mortified 

 by his memory. If he brought you yesterday a new 

 proposition, he would bring you to-day another not 

 less revolutionary. A very industrious man, and set 

 ting, like all highly organized men, a high value on 

 his time, he seemed the only man of leisure in town, 

 always ready for any excursion that promised well, 

 or for conversation prolonged into late hours. His 

 trenchant sense was never stopped by his rules of 

 daily prudence, but was always up to the new occasion. 



