4 INDOOR STUDIES 



are usually understood, yet his life showed a devo- 

 tion to principle such as one life in millions does 

 not show; and matching this there runs through his 

 works a vein of the purest and rarest poetry and 

 the finest wisdom. For both these reasons, time 

 will enhance rather than lessen the value of his 

 contributions. The world likes a good hater and 

 refuser almost as well as it likes a good lover and 

 acceptor, only it likes him farther off. 



In writing of Thoreau, I am not conscious of 

 having any criticism to make of him. I would fain 

 accept him just as he was, and make the most of 

 him, defining and discriminating him as I would 

 a flower or a bird or any other product of nature, — 

 perhaps exaggerating some features the better to 

 bring them out. There were greater men among 

 his contemporaries, but I doubt if there were any 

 more genuine and sincere, or more devoted to ideal 

 ends. If he was not this, that, or the other great 

 man, he was Thoreau, and he fills his own niche 

 well, and has left a positive and distinct impression 

 upon the literature of his country. He did his 

 work thoroughly; he touched bottom; he made the 

 most of his life. He said: "I would not be one 

 lof those who will foolishly drive a nail into mere 

 lath and plastering ; " he would beat about with his 

 hammer till he found the studding, and no one 

 can study his life and books and not feel that he 

 really drove his nail home into good solid timber. 

 He was, perhaps, a little too near his friend and 

 master, Emerson, and brought too directly under 



