ANALYSIS Henry David Thoreau i November 1945

value of it—and then put in an evening' or two with the revealing extracts from his journals, or diaries as we call them. Maybe you too will decide that Thoreau was "maladjusted." But you might with- hold judgment until you define this path- ological mouthful. Before the war the boy who ran away from home and joined the army was "maladjusted"; during the war the boy - who refused to join the army on principle was similarly labelled. The word, therèfóre, as 'used", simply means that the person so described is either-in- capable or unwilling to submit to the herd-cult. It connotes some emotional mental weakness, and carries a bit of con- HE secretary of the Thoreau Society descension and of pity with it; that the reports increasing interest in the ability and willingness to stand the crowd Tlong forgotten "ne'er-do-well." It off may indicate exceptional self-reliance takes a long time for word-of-mouth ad-.: is overlooked. Sometimes one cannot help vertising to get around, but because that suspecting that the "adjusted," those who kind of publicity attaches itself only to are quick to fit themselves into any first-class merchandise its effectiveness is thought-pattern prepared by the neigh- irresistible. Recognition of Thoreau's bors, find the term "maladjusted" a con- contribution to the philosophy of individ- venient covering up of some weakness of ualism could not be put off forever. Sev- their own. Maybe the word is plain name- erel books and articles have, of course, calling, pulled up out of the gutter by cropped up to meet the market created "science." The suppressed rebel in us re- by this new interest in Thoreau, but un- sents the courage of those who rebel fortunately these "lives" and commenta- openly. ries have come during an era when the dominating thought-vogues are psychol- In this connection I am reminded of a ogy and collectivism; so that these studies story told by Artemus Ward about Bill- are somewhat overladen with psycho- son, his partner in the show business: analysis and social theory. "Billson," says I, "You hain't got a well- balanced mind." "Yes, I have, old hoss- Therefore, if you want to know Thoreau you had better pass up the diagnosticians fly," he says (he was a low cuss), "Yes, and get down to reading Thoreau. You I have. I've a mind that balances in any will find him an "open book"—quite will- direction the public rekwires, and that's ing' to tell you frankly, and interestingly, what I calls a well-balanced mind." Tho- what he thought and why he lived as he reau did not have that kind of a mind; did. He is quite companionable. Begin, which makes him, it seems, quite a tid- with his ëãi "Civil 'Disobedience, bit for psychologists. Their scalpels might Slavery in Massachusetts, John Brown, more usefully dig into the minds of con- Life Without Principle; if you want more, forming mediocrities; it would be socially and you will, go in for Walden—but you beneficial to discover the consistency of will have to read it slowly to get the full mass putty. * * * BIOGRAPHY of Thoreau worth A professor of economics once told me A reading, because it concerns itself he was convinced that the last word on with revealing the man from his own the subject was pronounced by Henry point of view and not with the biogra- George. "Do you teach him?" I asked. of him, was done by a "No, he is not in the curriculum, and if I Frenchman, Leon Bazalgette. "The gods," tried to teach Henry George it would be says Bazalgette, "have made a Henry who worth my job." Thoreau could not un- is all of a piece, and they have placed him derstand that kind of thinking; if flogging on the earth among objects and souls that were part of the curriculum he would cut himself off from it. He valued Thoreau are different and queer." There you have more than his job. it. What do we mean by "queer"? If all but one of us were color-blind, that one We talk a lot about freedom these days. would indeed seem queer to us; but how When you get to the bottom of this talk would our inability to distinguish colors you realize that, first, very few know appear to the gifted one? And so, as this what freedom is and, secondly, still fewer country bumpkin went through Harvard want it. The fact is that what we call free- in his stout green suit, while the fine dom is an increase in wages (or doles), young gentlemen were uniformed in tra- more profits (or subsidies), or a bottom ditional black, the incongruity which less abundance of privileges. For such caused them to smile was as nothing to things we - particularly the affluent the oddity, as he saw it, of voluntarily among us—are ready to lay freedom on squeezing one's personality into a conven- the line. The essence of freedom, which tion. Even in his 'teens he displays that is an inflexible respect for one's self, is ",militant devotion to various axioms that being bartered every day for mere trifles. he identifies with himself." He could not be cast into a mould; he was not made of Thoreau was not in that business. Once that stuff. Harvard had facilities which the dwindling fortunes of his father's he could use to improve himself. It was pencil factory needed looking into. Henry a means; the end was a better Thoreau. undertook the job and made the best pen- It was not for the "old joke of a diploma" cil in America. He made only one; that that he read enormously, far beyond the was enough. As an honest workman he requirements of his curriculum, though satisfied himself; as a good son he put his outside of it. At nineteen he wrote: father on the way to a competence. Why "Learning is Art's creature, but it is not should he sell himself for pencils? Profits essential to the perfect man: it cannot were not among the axioms which he educate." identified with H. D. Thoreau. Luxuries came too high if the price was freedom. When we reflect on a Thoreau, we must Imagine our "captains of industry" pass- always consider the sanity of the world ing up a profit or a privilege for a chance in juxtaposition to his. Take his first ex- to be men. C •perience as a school-master. In his ped- agogy he finds no place for the whipping Freedom is an individual experience. If rod; for this heresy the head-master calls you have it, its objective expression will him to account; being an honest man he find many forms; but if you don't have it must deliver what is expected of him for you will get alor all ' .ht, like any four- footed animal or "sound" citizen, and you his wages; therefore, he lines up at ran- may even go to Heaven; but you can dom a half dozen pupils and thoroughly never be free. Chattel-slavery was the flogs them. But, he must be honest with issue in Thoreau's time, just as State- his axioms, too; therefore he resigns. He slavery is now. A lot of people talked could not afford to let Thoreau drift into about the iniquity of the institution. What false values. Was he or the recognized did Thoreau do? rule of pedagogy queer? He refused to pay the

I. poll-tax on the ground that it would be The value you put on freedom is, used by the Commonwealth of Massachu- like all objective value, the price you setts to capture and return fugitive are willing to pay for it. Thoreau's slaves. Now, when you refuse to pay taxes urice came very hieh. and the dif- you are really a dangerous man, for you ference between him and other peo- undermine the structure by which some ple is not to be found in the lingo of men live on the labor of others; therefore psychology but in the greater worth you must be clapped into jail until you he put on self-esteem, which is the see the error of your ways and make your essence of freedom. He rejected the mob because mingling with it de- "adjustment." Of his one night spent be- manded a sacrifice of that self-es- hind bars Thoreau writes: "I did not for teem at the altars of convention and a moment feel confined, and the walls hypocrisy. That he was not unso- cial is evidenced by his friendship seemed a great waste of stone and mor- with people of similar timber and by tar.. . I couid not but smile to see his devotion to his family; whether how industriously they locked the it was with Emerson or the wood- door on my meditations, which fol- cutter, with Channing or an Indian lowed them out again without let or guide, his social contacts had to be hindrance. As they could not reach on an above-board basis, unencum- me they resolved to punish my body; bered with trivialities; any other just as boys, if they cannot come terms did not interest him. If being against some person against whom social at any cost to self-esteem is they have a spite, will abuse his dog. the mark of balance, then Thoreau I saw that the State was half-witted, was decidedly queer. But the testi- that it was as timfd as a lone woman mony points rather to his having a with her silver spoons . . . I lost all higher sense of values than the ordi- my remaining respect for it, and nary run of men. He was deter- pitied it." Such a man can never mined to be free of rubbish. Once be enslaved. he was asked to sign a pledge, to * * * which the names of the "best" peo- ple in Concord were attached, that T need hardly be said that Thoreau he would treat all people as brothers. I had no truck with institutions, or- He declined to do so until he found ganizations or "movements." When out how other people would treat freedom submits to a formula it rids him. He was not going to be so- itself of responsibility, the responsi- ciable for the sake of sociability; he bility to one's own axioms. To check demanded as much as he gave. He one's thought and behavior against would neither accept nor bestow con- the dictates of one's conscience may descension. prove unflattering; to chart one's But the real price he paid for free- course by such a check-up requires dom was not in ridding himself of a powerful will; it is to avoid such the strictures of society, but in cur- revelation and responsibility that tailing his desires. He conquered his people are prone to hide behind rit- appetite in order to be free; he was uals, constitutions and by-laws. But not going to be a slave to things. flight from individual responsibility His venture into the pencil business amounts to an abandonment of free- shows that he had the makings of dom, You are not free when you re- a successful industrialist. With a fuse to make choices in your own brother he operated a school that name. You enslave yourself when was the envy and chagrin of rival you take refuge from the conse- schoolmasters, not only because of quences of your decisions in a com- its success but more so because of mittee, a nation or any collective fic- some advanced ideas of pedagogy tion. To Thoreau such "escapism" which the brothers introduced. As was unthinkable, queer. So, he a surveyor he was in demand and writes: "as a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind, so, highly respected, both for his accu- one would say, where there is a lull of truth, an institution grows up." For him there never was a lull of truth. 3 racy (he made his own instruments), who are constitutionally incapable of and for his integrity. Those who axioms. If the reformer justifies his hired him out for any kind of a job, calling on the ground that through whether farm work or painting a education the lacking moral values fence, were sure to get their money's may be instilled, the answer is that worth because Thoreau would not all experience denies that possibility. cheat himself by doing a poor job. Education can present choices; it He might have made money also as cannot make decisions. No peda- a lecturer and a writer had he been gogical system has ever succeeded in willing to compromise his standards, eliciting values which do not exist for he was proficient in both fields. in the person. But, he was not willing to give up Improving on Jefferson, Thoreau what the making of money costs says: "That government is best Freedom. For that reason he refused which governs not at all;" then he regular occupation of any kind—al- wisely adds: "and when men are though he was never idle—and got prepared for it, that will be the kind himself the reputation of being a of government which they will have." ne'er-do-well. From his own point Will they ever be prepared for it? of view he was doing far better than his detractors, for while they got only respectability for their pains he had self-respect. * * * HE rock upon which every at- T tempt to rid man of his shackles is ultimately wrecked is man's un- willingness to pay the price of free- dom—the price which Thoreau cheer- fully paid. Every "cause" must crash on it. For, when the theorizing is done, the books are all written, the debates have been resolved into a formula for action, there remains al- ways this immovable obstacle: "One Must Live." By this dodge the lip- servicers simply admit that the worth they put on the ideal is less than that they put on their accus- tomed way of living or the prospect of improving it. The ideal was some- thing nice to talk about, to use as a tonic for one's sluggish intellectual liver, but when it comes to giving up for it, that's another matter. It is more pleasant to make one's peace with the going order of things, right or wrong. And if your conscience Is pricked by someone who insists that you pay the price, you simply kick him out of the way; and you salve your conscience by telling it the "time is not ripe" or "wait until I make my pile." Thoreau said that if he saw a re- former coming his way he would run for his life. He had no need for reform. The man who identifies ax- ioms with himself wants no preacher to show him how, while the preacher will have no influence with those