222 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



such mental change as I have described. Others 

 have their instincts nearer to the surface, and 

 are moved deeply by nature in any solitary place ; 

 and I imagine that Thoreau was such a one. At 

 all events, although he was without the Darwinian 

 lights which we have, and these feelings were 

 always to him "strange," "mysterious," "unac- 

 countable, ' ' he does not conceal them. This is the 

 "something uncanny in Thoreau" which seems in- 

 explicable and startling to such as have never been 

 startled by nature, nor deeply moved ; but which, 

 to others, imparts a peculiarly delightful aro- 

 matic flavor to his writings. It is his wish towards 

 a more primitive mode of life, his strange aban- 

 donment when he scours the wood like a half- 

 starved hound, and no morsel could be too sav- 

 age for him; the desire to take a ranker hold on 

 life and live more as the animals do ; the sympathy 

 with nature so keen that it takes his breath away ; 

 the feeling that all the elements were congenial 

 to him, which made the wildest scenes unaccount- 

 ably familiar, so that he came and went with a 

 strange liberty in nature. Once only he had 

 doubts, and thought that human companionship 

 might be essential to happiness; but he was at 

 the same time conscious of a slight insanity in the 

 mood; and he soon again became sensible of the 

 sweet beneficent society of nature, of an infinite 

 and unaccountable friendliness all at once like 

 an- atmosphere sustaining him. 

 In the limits of a chapter it is impossible to do 



