22 INDOOR STUDIES 



at all in fair weather." "There is no better fence 

 to put between you and the vUlage than a storm 

 into which the villagers do not venture forth." 

 This passion for storms and these many drenchings 

 no doubt helped shorten Thoreau's days. 



This crustiness, this playful and willful perver- 

 sity of Thoreau, is one source of his charm as a 

 writer. It stands him in stead of other qualities, — 

 of real unction and heartiness, — is, perhaps, these 

 qualities in a more seedy and desiccated state. 

 Hearty, ia the fullest sense, he was not, and unctu- 

 ous he was not, yet it is only by comparison that 

 we miss these qualities from his writings. Perhaps 

 he would say that we should not expect the milk 

 on the outside of the cocoanut; but I suspect there 

 is an actual absence of milk here, though there is 

 sweet meat, and a good, hard sheU to protect it. 

 Good-nature and conciliation were not among his 

 accomplishments, and yet he puts his reader in a 

 genial and happy frame of mind. He is the occa- 

 sion of unction and heartiness in others, if he has 

 not them in himself. He says of himself, with 

 great penetration: "My only integral experience is 

 in my vision. I see, perchance, with more integ- 

 rity than I feel." His sympathies lead you into 

 narrow quarters, but his vision takes you to the 

 hilltops. As regards humanity and all that goes 

 with it, he was like an inverted cone, and grew 

 broader and broader the farther he got from it. 

 He approached things, or even men, but very little 

 through his humanity or his manliness. How de- 



