THE LIFE WORTH LIVING. 1/3 



ary warp of the last one hundred years, when the 

 drawing of water and the hewing of wood were 

 essential to life, to say nothing of comfort. 

 There was certain to be some energetic protest 

 against the narrow view of life which all work 

 and no play was sure to produce in us as a 

 people, and the wonder is that Thoreau stands 

 alone as a protestant. 



The personality of the man is so interesting 

 that I will take the liberty of devoting a few 

 pages to saying something of him, using many 

 words and expressions which I find in an ad- 

 mirable little article contributed some years 

 ago to the Cornhill Magazine, by Stevenson. 

 " Thoreau's thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, 

 even in a bad wood-cut," says this writer, 

 "conveys some hint of the limitations of 

 his mind and character. With his almost 

 acid sharpness of insight, with his almost 

 animal dexterity in action, there went none 

 of that large, unconscious geniality of the 

 world's hero. He was not easy, or ample, 

 or urbane, not even kind." " He was bred 

 to no profession," says Emerson ; " he never 

 married ; he lived alone, he went to no church ; 

 he never voted, he refused to pay a tax to 



