160 
WALDEN. 
man, but kept a child. When Nature made him, she 
gave him a strong body and contentment for his portion, 
and propped him on every side with reverence and re¬ 
liance, that he might live out his threescore years and 
ten a child. He was so genuine and unsophisticated 
that no introduction would serve to introduce him, more 
than if you introduced a woodchuck to your neighbor. 
He had got to find him out as you did. He would not 
play any part. Men paid him wages for work, and so 
helped to feed and clothe him; but he never exchanged 
opinions with them. He was so simply and naturally 
humble — if he can be called humble who never as¬ 
pires — that humility was no distinct quality in him, 
nor could he conceive of it. Wiser men were demi¬ 
gods to him. If you told him that such a one was com¬ 
ing, he did as if he thought that any thing so grand 
would expect nothing of himself, but take all the re¬ 
sponsibility on itself, and let him be forgotten still. He 
never heard the sound of praise. He particularly rev¬ 
erenced the writer and the preacher. Their perform¬ 
ances were miracles. When I told him that I wrote 
considerably, he thought for a long time that it was 
merely the handwriting which I meant, for he could 
write a remarkably good hand himself. I sometimes 
found the name of his native parish handsomely written 
in the snow by the highway, with the proper French 
accent, and knew that he had passed. I asked him if 
he ever wished to write his thoughts. He said that he 
had read and written letters for those who could not, but 
he never tried to write thoughts, — no, he could not, he 
could not tell what to put first, it would kill him, and then 
there was spelling to be -attended to at the same time ! 
I heard that a distinguished wise man and reformer 
