THOREAU'S WALDEN 65 



To come to Walden at mid-day, even with Tho- 

 reau's account of it in the back of your head, is 

 not at first to be impressed with the clear spiritu- 

 ality of its waters nor their depth. Here, you 

 say, is the path from Concord, lightly worn by 

 the spring of his tread, clumsily rutted by the 

 heavy footsteps of many who follow, having in- 

 deed hitched their wagon to a star. Here is the 

 cairn erected in his memory, to which with doffed 

 hat you may well add a stone from the pond shore. 

 And here is the pond itself, a gem of silvered 

 water set among low, wooded hills. Your eye 

 may well catch first a sight of the driftwood on the 

 shore, of which there is much and think it makes 

 the place untidy and wish that the Concord select- 

 men might have it removed. But the thought 

 which this first mid-day glimpse stirs soon passes 

 from you and standing on the very brink you 

 realize the limpidity of the water and the spirit of 

 dignity and peace which prevails over all. The 

 world grows up around many shrines of its great 

 ones and so changes the environment that you 

 go away sorry that you came, wishing that you 

 had let the place live in your imagination as it 



