2 INDOOE STUDIES 



of the passages in the former have been in print 

 before. I notice one in the "Week," one or more 

 in his discourse on "Walkiag, or the Wild," and 

 one in the essay called "Life without Principle." 



Thoreau published but two volumes in his life- 

 time, "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack 

 Eivers" — which, by the way, is mainly a record 

 of other and much longer voyages upon other and 

 less tangible rivers than those named in the title — 

 and "Walden, or Life in the Woods." The other 

 six volumes of his works, including Mr. Blake's, 

 have been collected and published since his death. ^ 



Of Thoreau 's journal as published by Mr. Blake 

 I think it may be said that a good deal of it is 

 evidently experimental with the author. There is 

 often an attempt to make something out of nothing 

 by the mere force of words. He squeezes his sub- 

 ject as in a vice; we feel the effort he makes, but 

 the result is often not worth the labor ; the precious 

 drop he is after is not forthcoming. In fact, his 

 journal is largely the record of a search for some- 

 thiag he never fully finds: any fact of natural his- 

 tory or botany or geology which he does find is 

 only incidental; he turns it over curiously, remarks 

 upon it, and passes on in his chase of the unattain- 

 able. Yet there is most excellent and characteristic 

 matter in his journal, and many valuable and in- 

 teresting natural history notes. When he wrote 



1 Since this was written a new Riverside Edition of Thoreau's 

 writings has been published in eleven volumes, including Autumn, 

 from his journal, and a selection of his Familiar Letters. 



