THE LIFE WORTH LIVING. 1/5 



was so complete and curious that he could have 

 told the time of year within a day or so by the 

 aspect of the plants. There were few things 

 that he could not do. He could make a house, 

 a boat, a pencil, or a book. He was a surveyor, 

 a scholar, a natural historian. He could run, 

 walk, climb, skate, and swim, and manage a 

 boat. The smallest occasion served to display 

 his physical accomplishments; and a manufac- 

 turer, upon observing his dexterity with the 

 window of a railway car, offered him a situation 

 on the spot. 



Thoreau decided from the first to live a life 

 of self-improvement ; he saw duty and inclina- 

 tion in that direction. He had no money, and 

 it was a sore necessity which compelled him to 

 make money even the little he needed. There 

 was a love of freedom, a strain of the wild man 

 in his nature that rebelled with violence against 

 the yoke of custom ; he was so eager to culti- 

 vate himself and to be happy in his own 

 society, that he could consent with difficulty 

 even to interruptions of friendship. " Such are 

 my engagements to myself that I dare not prom- 

 ise," he once wrote in answer to an invitation ; 

 and the italics are his own. Thoreau is always 



