12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAU. 



He was a speaker and actor of the truth, born such, 

 and was ever running into dramatic situations from 

 this cause. In any circumstance, it interested all by 

 standers to know what part Henry would take, and 

 what he would say ; and he did not disappoint expec 

 tation, but used an original judgment on each emer 

 gency. In ,1845 he built himself a small framed 

 house on the shores of Walden Pond, and lived there 

 two years alone, a life of labor and study. This ac 

 tion was quite native and fit for him. No one who 

 knew him would tax him with affectation. He was 



Jmore unlike his neighbors in his thought than in his 

 action. As soon as he had exhausted the advantages 

 of that solitude, he abandoned it. In 1847, not ap 

 proving some uses to which the public expenditure 

 was applied, he refused to pay his town tax, and was 

 put in jail. A friend paid the tax for him, and he 

 was released. The like annoyance was threatened 

 the next year. But, as his friends paid the tax, not 

 withstanding his protest, I believe he ceased to resist. 

 No opposition or ridicule had any weight with him. 

 He coldly and fully stated his opinion without affect 

 ing to believe that it was the opinion of the company. 

 It was of no consequence if every one present held 

 the opposite opinion. On one occasion he went to 

 the University Library to procure some books. The 

 librarian refused to lend them. Mr. Thoreau re 

 paired to the president, who stated to him the rules 

 and usages which permitted the loan of books to resi 

 dent graduates, to clergymen who were alumni, and 

 to some others resident within a circle of ten miles 

 radius from the college. Mr. Thoreau explained to 

 the president that the railroad had destroyed the old 

 scale of distances, that the library was useless, yes, 



