What He Lived For: a brief on Thoreau

   

#003 Jeffrey Emmons

 Henry Thoreau is the self proclaimed student and friend of  Ralph Waldo Emerson. He [Thoreau] wrote many works. One of his many works is Where I Lived, and What I lived For. In this piece of work he starts discussing the idea on land property. He talks about how he surveyed many different farms. He also got rejected from several farms. He stated that the closest he came to possession was when he bought Hollowell Place, but at the last second the wife decided that she wanted to keep the property. At this point in the decision he had already sorted the seed and made a wheelbarrow. The husband offered to pay ten dollars for the farm. Thoreau at this time only had his ten cents. He ended up selling his farm back and keeping his ten cents, seed, and wheelbarrow. He said that he had been the rich man because, in his words "I am monarch of all I survey, My right there in none to dispute."

     He was fine with this, because it allowed him to read the Homeric epic. In the beginning reading was just a private pastime. Overtime however he begins to start placing reading as the priority. He begins to comment on the merits of everyone who can read Homer in the original, himself included in the group. He held a disdain for the translations of the book. Stating that they were 'cheap' and that Homer has not been yet published in English that has done Homer any justice. He goes on to emphasize the the work of farming, reading, and home-owning. An athlete under goes long stints of training and a normal schedule for exercise. He compares this to a great reader. He is not impressed the use of fancy words, yet however he is impressed by great writings. It's no wonder Alexander the Great carried a copy of the Iliad everywhere he went.

     He recommends that we read a wide variety, all the while mocking those who only read a small selection of text consisting on the Bible and maybe a few popular readings. He causally extends his skepticism to the main stream culture of Concord. He states that the culture limits the great thinking of even the most gifted minds in the area. He says that real progress, of the mind and soul, is being forgotten. This is true even when compared to slow progress in technology and transportation of the modern society. He condemns his countrymen for their belief in that the Hebrews were the only group of people who possessed the only form of sacred writings. They had completely ignored all of the other sacred text of the other people groups, like the Hindus. He complains to some extent that his neighbors care too much on the physical body and not enough time filling the malnourished mind. He crys out for more spending on education. He states  “New England can hire all the wise men in the world to come and teach her, and board them round the while, and not be provincial at all.” He blames the social class system for focusing to much on 'fine breeding' of the noblemen, and forgetting about the more diverse population. Therefore he calls out "instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men."