Henry David Thoreau 195 



in my soul to be bad." To be what we are 

 and to become what we are capable of becom- 

 ing is the end of life. It is "when we fall be- 

 hind ourselves," that "we are cursed with 

 duties and the neglect of duties." "I love 

 the wild," he says, "not less than the good. 

 The life of a good man will hardly improve us 

 more than the life of a freebooter, for the in- 

 evitable laws appear as plainly in the infringe- 

 ment as in the observance, and our lives are 

 sustained by a nearly equal expense of virtue 

 of some kind." "As for doing good," he 

 writes elsewhere, "that is one of the profes- 

 sions that are full. Moreover, I have tried it 

 fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied 

 that it does not agree with my constitution. 

 Probably I should not conscientiously and de- 

 liberately forsake my particular calling to do the 

 good which society demands of me to save the 

 universe from annihilation ; and I believe that 

 a like but infinitely greater steadfastness else- 

 where is all that preserves it now. If you should 

 ever be betrayed into any of these philanthro- 

 pies, do not let your left hand know what your 

 right hand does, for it is not worth knowing." 



