WINTER RAMBLES IN THOREAU'S COUNTRY 



By Herbert W. Gleason 



Author of "Through the Year with Thoreau" 



With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author 

 "I have traveled a erreat deal in Concord." — Thoreau. 



The National Geographic Maga- 

 zine being pre-eminently a maga- 

 zine of travel, it is not inappro- 

 priate to call the attention of its readers 

 to the journeyings of one of the most 

 original, observant, and wholly entertain- 

 ing travelers whom the continent of 

 America has produced. To be sure, his 

 travels did not cover a very wide field, 

 geographically ; they consisted chiefly of 

 daily walks afield or boating trips on 

 the river to various points in his imme- 

 diate neighborhood ; yet they resulted in 

 giving to his name a higher place in the 

 temple of fame than that of many an- 

 other who has roamed the seven seas and 

 encompassed the ends of the earth. 



Henry David Thoreau was born in 

 Concord, Massachusetts, a little more 

 than a century ago, and, with the excep- 

 tion of a few brief and unimportant ex- 

 cursions away from home, his entire life 

 of forty-five years was spent within the 

 confines of his native town. 



So far, however, from lamenting this 

 as a misfortune, he actually gloried in the 

 supposed limitation. "It takes a man of 

 genius," he declared, "to travel in his own 

 country, in his native village ; to make 

 any progress between his door and his 

 gate. If a man is rich and strong any- 

 where," he confided to his journal, "it 

 must be on his native soil. Here I have 

 been these fortv years, learning the Ian 

 guage of these fields that I may the better 

 express myself. 



PREFERRED HIS OWN VILLAGE TO THE 

 PROUDEST PARIS 



"If I should travel to the prairies, I 

 should much less understand them, and 

 my past life would serve me but ill to de- 

 scribe them. Many a weed here stands 

 for more of life to me than the big trees 

 of California would if I should go there." 



Somebody once suggested to him a trip 



to Paris. But why should he go to Paris? 

 "It would be a wretched bargain to ac- 

 cept the. proudest Paris in exchange for 

 my native village. At best, Paris could 

 only be a school in which to learn to live 

 here, a stepping-stone to Concord, a 

 school in which to fit for this university." 



"THE ONLY TRAVEL THAT IS GOOD" 



And so he records his solemn convic- 

 tion : "If these fields and streams and 

 woods, the phenomena of nature here, 

 and the simple occupations of the inhab- 

 itants should cease to interest and inspire 

 me, no culture or wealth would atone for 

 the - loss." 



"My feet forever stand 

 On Concord fields, 

 And I must live the life 

 Which their soil yields." 



Now, all this, of course, is at a wide 

 remove from commonly accepted ideas, 

 and many a Cook's tourist will smile 

 superciliously on reading this pronuncia- 

 mento of a confirmed stay-at-home. Yet 

 Thoreau never' meant to disparage for- 

 eign travel, as such. Indeed, from his 

 own account it may fairly be assumed 

 that his familiarity with the best books 

 of travel far exceeded that of most peo- 

 ple' of his time, and certainly few people 

 of any time have possessed, both by na- 

 ture and training, a keener appreciation 

 of the advantages which travel brings. 



He was simply trying to enforce, in 

 somewhat vigorous fashion, the truth that 

 to a man with receptive mind and studi- 

 ous purpose there is to be found in his 

 immediate environment a richness of ex- 

 perience and a depth of satisfaction which 

 cannot be had in diffuse wanderings, 

 however extended. "Only that travel is 

 good," he claimed, "which reveals to me 

 the value of home and enables me to en- 

 joy it better." 



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