10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAU. 



dress, the manners and talk of highly cultivated people 

 were all thrown away on him. He much preferred 

 a good Indian, and considered these refinements as 

 impediments to conversation, wishing to meet his 

 companion on the simplest terms. He declined invi 

 tations to dinner-parties, because there each was in 

 every one s way, and he could not meet the individ 

 uals to any purpose. &quot; They make their pride,&quot; he 

 said, &quot; in making their dinner cost much ; I make my 

 pride in making my dinner cost little.&quot; When asked 

 at table what dish he preferred, he answered, &quot; The 

 nearest.&quot; He did not like the taste of wine, and 

 never had a vice in his life. He said, &quot; I have a 

 faint recollection of pleasure derived from smoking 

 dried lily-stems before I was a man. I had com 

 monly a supply of these. I have never smoked any 

 thing more noxious.&quot; 



He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and 

 supplying them himself. In his travels, he used the 

 railroad only to get over so much country as was un 

 important to the present purpose, walking hundreds of 

 miles, avoiding taverns, buying a lodging in farmers 

 and fishermen s houses, as cheaper and more agree 

 able to him, and because there he could better find 

 the men and the information he wanted. 



There was somewhat military in his nature, not to 

 be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, 

 as if he did not feel himself except in opposition. He 

 wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to pillory, I may 

 say required a little sense of victory, a roll of the 

 drum, to call his powers into full exercise. It cost 

 him nothing to say No ; indeed, he found it much 

 easier than to say Yes. It seemed as if his first in 

 stinct on hearing a proposition was to controvert it, 



