Excursions
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~71,600 words · 340 passages
Cite this work
- APAHenry David Thoreau. (n.d.). Excursions. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thoreau/excursions
- MLAHenry David Thoreau. "Excursions." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thoreau/excursions.
- ChicagoHenry David Thoreau. Excursions. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thoreau/excursions.
What it is about
Excursions (1863): the nature essays, published posthumously by his sister Sophia.
Context and history
It contains 'Walking', where he says that in wildness is the preservation of the world, and the pieces on autumn colours and wild apples. **Warning: the catalogue also holds 'Excursions, and Poems', and it has not yet been checked whether they are the same book or two different collections.** The case is open.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
work to chemists and artists in Boston, and having obtained their certificates to its excellence and to its equality with the best London manufacture, he returned home contented. His friends congratulated him that he had now opened his way to fortune. But he replied, that he should never make another pencil. “Why should I? I would not do again what I have done once.” He resumed his endless walks and miscellaneous studies, making every day some new acquaintance with Nature, though as yet never speaking of zoölogy or botany, since, though very studious of natural facts, he was incurious of technical and textual science. At this time, a strong, healthy youth, fresh from college, whilst all his companions were choosing their profession, or eager to begin some lucrative employment, it was inevitable that his thoughts should be exercised on the same question, and it required rare decision to refuse all the accustomed paths, and keep his solitary freedom at the cost of disappointing the natural expectations of his family and friends: all the more difficult that he had a perfect probity, was exact in securing his own independence, and in holding every man to the like duty. But Thoreau never faltered. He was a born protestant. He declined to give up his large ambition of knowledge and action for any narrow craft or profession, aiming at a much more comprehensive calling, the art of living well. If he slighted and defied the opinions of others, it was equally opposed to every class of reformers. Yet he paid the tribute of his uniform respect to the Anti-Slavery Party. One man, whose personal acquaintance he had formed, he honored with exceptional regard. Before the first friendly word had been spoken for Captain John Brown, after the arrest, he sent notices to most houses in Concord, that he would speak in a public hall on the condition and character of John Brown, on Sunday evening, and invited all people to come. The Republican Committee, the Abo← Back to Henry David Thoreau