t way. Truly idealists like Thoreau are
hard to satisfy. Agassiz said he could not afford to give his time to
making money, but how many Agassiz are there in the world at any one
time? Such a man as our own Edison is influenced very little by the
commercial value of his inventions. This is as it should be, but only
a small fraction of mankind do or can live to ideal ends. Those who
work for love are certainly the lucky ones, and are exceptionally
endowed. It is love of the sport that usually sends one a-fishing or
a-hunting, and this gives it the sanction of the Gospel according to
Thoreau. Bradford Torrey saw a man sitting on a log down in Florida
who told him, when he asked about his occupation, that he had no time
to work! It is to be hoped that Thoreau enjoyed his surveying, as he
probably did, especially when it took him through sphagnum swamps or
scrub-oak thickets or a tangle of briers and thorns. The more
difficult the way, the more he could summon his philosophy. "You must
get your living by loving." It is a hard saying, but it is a part of
his gospel. But as he on one occasion worked seventy-six days
surveying, for only one dollar a day, the money he received should not
be laid up against him.

As a matter of fact we find Thoreau frequently engaging in manual
labor to earn a little money. He relates in his Journal of 1857 that
while he was living in the woods he did various jobs about
town--fence-building, painting, gardening, carpentering:

One day a man came from the east edge of the town and said
that he wanted to get me to brick up a fireplace, etc.,
etc., for him. I told him that I was not a mason, but he
knew that I had built my own house entirely and would not
take no for an answer. So I went.

It was three miles off, and I walked back and forth each
day, arriving early and working as late as if I were living
there. The man was gone away most of the time, but had left
some sand dug up in his cow-yard for me to make mortar with.
I bricked up a fireplace, papered a chamber, but my
principal work was whitewashing ceilings. Some were so dirty
that many coats would not conceal the dirt. In the kitchen I
finally resorted to yellow-wash to cover the dirt. I took my
meals there, sitting down with my employer (when he got
home) and his hired men. I remember the awful condition of
the sink, at which I washed one day, and when I ca