DAILY SAUNTERING with Henry David Thoreau 1-25-2015 SUNDAY At the beginning of Sunday, the dawn is described as dating from earlier than the fall of man and retaining a heathenish integrity. This description sets the stage for Thoreaus later lengthy diatribe against established Christianity, prompted by the sight of people coming out of church on the Sabbath. Thoreau contrasts Christianity with the religion of nature. He refers to the displacement of the Indian by the English settler, and contrasts the wild life of the Indian with white mans civilization. The white man is described as strong in community, yielding obedience to authority. Civilization lacks the heroic spirit and leads to the degeneration of man. The Indian — independent and aloof — preserves an integral relationship with his native gods and with nature. The sciences and arts do not affect us nearly as powerfully as more primal concerns — hunting, fishing, mythology, and fables. Mythology, the most ancient history and biography, is explored, as is the poets particular susceptibility to it. The ultimate passage of the works of man into nature is suggested by the canal at Billerica Falls. Thoreau urges a life embracing both spirit and matter (as nature demands) and discusses books, literature, and the fitness of poetry to treat nature and universal truth. He praises Homer and Shakespeare, dismisses the treatment of writing as a commodity, and likens writing to the rivers flowing. He admires homeliness, simplicity, and a natural vigor in books. These qualities permit truthful and fresh expression even of topics that have been explored before. The brothers pitch their tent in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where, in contrast to the Scythian vastness of the Billerica night, they are kept awake by raucous Irish laborers. One brother, visited by Evil Destinies in his dreams, is soothed by the other.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 14:54:07 +0000
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