BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAU. 9 



mathematical knowledge, and his habit of ascertaining 

 the measures and distances of objects which interested 

 him, the size of trees, the depth and extent of ponds 

 and rivers, the height of mountains, and the air-line 

 distance of his favorite summits, this, and his inti 

 mate knowledge of the territoiy about Concord, made 

 him drift into the profession of land-surveyor. It had 

 the advantage for him that it led him continually into 

 new and secluded grounds, and helped his studies of 

 Nature. His accuracy and skill in this work were 

 readily appreciated, and he found all the employment 

 he wanted. 



He could easily solve the problems of the surveyor, 

 but he was daily beset with graver questions, which 

 he manfully confronted. He interrogated every cus 

 tom, and wished to settle all his practice on an ideal 

 foundation. He was a protestant a Voutranw, and 

 few lives contain so many renunciations. He was 

 TSred 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. 

 He chose wisely, no doubt, for himself to be the 

 bachelor of thought and Nature. He had no talent 

 for wealth, and knew how to be poor without the least 

 hint of squalor or inelegance. Perhaps he fell into 

 his way of living without forecasting it much, but ap 

 proved it with later wisdom. &quot; I am often reminded,&quot; 

 he wrote in his journal, &quot; that, if I had bestowed on 

 me the wealth of Croesus, my aims must be still the 

 same and my means essentially the same.&quot; He had 

 no temptations to fight against, no appetites, no 

 passions, no taste for elegant trifles. A fine house, 



