THE LIFE WORTH LIVING. 183 



you record it precisely the first dozen times 

 you try, but at 'em again ; especially when, 

 after a sufficient pause you suspect that you 

 are touching the heart -or stomach of the mat- 

 ter. Reiterate your blows there and account 

 for the mountain to yourself. Not that the 

 story need be long, but it will take a long while 

 to make it short." Perhaps the most success- 

 ful work that Thoreau accomplished in this 

 direction is to be found in the passages relating 

 to fish in the " Week." These are remarkable 

 for a vivid truth of impression and a happy use 

 of language not frequently surpassed. 



Perhaps the very coldness and egoism of his 

 own nature gave Thoreau a clearer insight into 

 the intellectual basis of our warm mutual tolera- 

 tions grouped under the head of friendship ; 

 testimony to the value of friendship comes with 

 added force from one who was solitary and dis- 

 obliging, and of whom a friend remarked : " I 

 love Henry, but I cannot like him." He made 

 scarcely any distinction between love and friend- 

 ship. He was, indeed, too accurate an observer 

 not to remark that there exists already a natu- 

 ral disinterestedness and liberality between men 

 and women ; yet he thought friendship no re- 



