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nydus/Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil DisobediencePublic

Henry David Thoreau recounts his two-year experience living in a self-built house on the shore of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He addresses inquiries regarding his solitary lifestyle, labor, and philosophy while advocating for a sincere and personal approach to writing.

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Table of Contents

Spring

As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.—

“Eurus ad Auroram Nabathæaque regna recessit,

Persidaque, et radiis juga subdita matutinis.”

“The East-Wind withdrew to Aurora and the Nabathæan kingdom,

And the Persian, and the ridges placed under the morning rays

*    *    *    *

Man was born. Whether that Artificer of things,

The origin of a better world, made him from the divine seed;

Or the earth, being recent and lately sundered from the high

Ether, retained some seeds of cognate heaven.”

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. You may have

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