1/2 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



makes Thoreau a skulker, as Carlyle calls him, 

 or a loafer, as most of our typical American 

 business men, if they know any thing about 

 him at all, would probably dub him. At the 

 same time, I will confess that the man's asceti- 

 cism has less fascination for me than the per- 

 sistency 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 regard 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 com- 

 munity devoted to matters of fact, and that so 

 few outside of a narrow circle of writers and 

 thinkers know any thing about him. I am con- 

 vinced that the time will come when the name 

 of Henry David Thoreau will stand high in 

 American annals. He was our first noted Prot- 

 estant passionate, earnest, persistent, honest, 

 against the sordid materialism of this coun- 

 try. Our earlier years as a nation were natu- 

 rally taken up with hard material work, and if 

 to-day we place work, as work, upon a pedestal 

 which it does not deserve, it is due to the heredit- 



