Wachusett_ there are touches of genial friendliness with
the simple, sincere country folk, and evidence that he was heartily
welcome by them. Such a welcome would not have been vouchsafed to a
cold-blooded recluse.

The keen enjoyment afforded to mind and body by these outings suggested
to Thoreau the desirability of a longer and more intimate association
with Nature. Walden Wood had been a familiar and favoured spot for many
years, and so he began the building of his tabernacle there. So far from
being a sudden, sensational resolve with an eye to effect, it was the
natural outcome of his passion for the open.

He had his living to earn, and would go down into Concord from time to
time to sell the results of his handiwork. He was quite willing to see
friends and any chance travellers who visited from other motives than
mere inquisitiveness. On the other hand, the life he proposed for
himself as a temporary experiment would afford many hours of congenial
solitude, when he could study the ways of the animals that he loved and
give free expression to his naturalistic enthusiasms.

Far too much has been made of the Walden episode. It has been written
upon as if it had represented the totality of Thoreau's life, instead of
being merely an interesting episode. Critics have animadverted upon it,
as if the time had been spent in brooding, self-pity, and sentimental
affectations, as if Thoreau had gone there to escape from his fellow-men.
All this seems to me wide of the mark. Thoreau was always keenly
interested in men and manners; his essays abound in a practical sagacity,
too frequently overlooked. He went to Walden not to escape from ordinary
life, but to fit himself for ordinary life. The sylvan solitudes, as he
knew, had their lessons for him no less than the busy haunts of men.

Of course it would be idle to deny that he found his greatest happiness
in the woods and fields; it is this touch of wildness that makes of him a
Vagabond. But though not an emotional man, his was not a hard nature so
much as a reserved, self-centred nature, rarely expressing itself in
outward show of feeling. That he was a man capable of strong affection
is shown by his devotion to his brother. Peculiarities of temperament he
had certainly, idiosyncrasies as marked as those of Borrow. These I wish
to discuss later. For the moment I am concerned to defend him from the
criticism that he was a loveless, brooding kind of creature, m