n6 Company and Solitude 



den" and read the fifth chapter. Thoreau 

 was in the highest sense an egotist, and so, 

 necessarily, a lover of solitude. This is not 

 taking a pessimistic view concerning ourselves 

 or others. Our limitations call for isolation 

 that we may do ourselves justice, far more 

 frequently than our supposed needs call for 

 company ; and unless there is solitude at 

 command and full confidence in our strength, 

 we leave the world as we found it, so far as 

 our presence in it is concerned. Why we 

 should care to have it otherwise is the most 

 strange of all problems that vex our sojourn. 

 It is a serious matter, making life less en- 

 durable, to be plagued with ambition. Why 

 I sit on a torturing four-legged chair at my 

 desk when there is an easy rocker front of 

 the andirons is not solvable : it is simply a 

 faft, and an extremely disagreeable one at 

 that. But existence becomes less serious if 

 we can take pleasure in solitude and toy with 

 the puzzles that Nature dangles in front of 

 our faces. Such hours of existence gild a 

 gloomy world ; but how few, like Thoreau, 

 can extract the sweets of a quiet evening and 

 be honestly glad that they are living ! Some 

 of his distinguished critics could not, or 



