i8o The Life Worth Living 



I have put some words of Thoreau's upon 

 the title-page of this book, and no one who 

 has taken the pains to dip into its pages can 

 have failed to see that I have read the famous 

 hermit of Walden Pond with persistency and 

 admiration. There has always been to me 

 something fascinating about this out-door 

 idealist. I never have been, and probably 

 never shall be, a sympathizer with the view 

 which makes Thoreau a skulker, as Carlyle 

 calls him, or a loafer, as most of our typical 

 American business men, if they know anything 

 about him at all, would probabiy dub him. 

 At the same time, I will confess that the man's 

 asceticism has less fascination for me than the 

 persistency with which he harps upon the idea 

 that nine tenths or ninety-nine one-hundredths 

 of our people waste their time in making 

 money ; touch Thoreau at any point with re- 

 gard to business policy or business life, and he 

 fairly bristles with sarcasm and jibes. It has 

 been a life-long wonder to me that the man 

 has not been valued more highly even in this 

 community devoted to matters of fact, and that 

 so few outside of a narrow circle of writers and 



