20 INDOOR STUDIES 



unfathomable gulf between us, — let there be a 

 wholesome hate." Indeed, love and hatred seem 

 inseparable in his mind, and curiously identical. 

 He writes in his journal that "words should pass 

 between friends as the lightning passes from cloud 

 to cloud. " One of his poems begins : — 



" Let such pure hate still underprop 

 Our love, that we may be 

 Each other's conscience, 

 And have our sympathy 

 Mainly from thence. 



" Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me 

 "When I say thou dost disgust me. 

 Oh, I hate thee with a hate 

 That would fain annihilate ; 

 Yet, sometimes, against my will. 

 My dear friend, I love thee still. 

 It were treason to our love. 

 And a sin to God above, 

 One iota to abate 

 Of a pure, impartial hate." 



This is the salt with which he seasons and pre- 

 serves his love, — hatred. In this pickle it will 

 keep. Without it, it would become stale and vulgar. 

 This is characteristic of Thoreau; he must put in 

 something sharp and bitter. You shall not have the 

 nut without its bitter acrid rind or prickly sheath. 



As a man, Thoreau appears to have been what is 

 called a crusty person, — a loaf with a hard bake, 

 a good deal of crust, forbidding to tender gums, 

 but sweet to those who had good teeth and unction 

 enough to soften him. He says he did not wish to 

 take a cabin passage in life, " but rather to go before 

 the mast and on the deck of the world. " 



