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Henry David Thoreau S01E03
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00:00:00Major funding for Henry David Thoreau was provided by the Better Angels Society, Jeff Skoll, the Mansueto Foundation, Tyson Foods,
00:00:12and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
00:00:15Funding was also provided by the Tyson Family Foundation, the Neil and Anna Rasmussen Foundation, and by the Better Angels
00:00:23Society members, the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment and Mark A. Tracy.
00:00:30Additional funding was provided by Roxanne Quimby Foundation, Jim and Mona Milan through the HeartSpace Fund, and Elizabeth Kenney.
00:00:49It seemed to me that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for
00:00:57that one.
00:01:00Henry David Thoreau.
00:01:04If one says that he went to Walden to find the secret of life, and if one says he did,
00:01:12the point was to take it back out into the world.
00:01:15To move to town and see, well, can I bring this with me?
00:01:20Can I meet new challenges and a new environment?
00:01:25So the experiments continue.
00:01:34When Henry David Thoreau left Walden Pond, he was 30 years old.
00:01:40For two years, he had lived simply and deliberately, broadening his own transcendent view of life based on the revelation
00:01:49that all things, rocks, plants, animals, and people, are interconnected.
00:01:56His writing there provided the foundations for his two most famous works, Walden, about what he had learned from his
00:02:04two years at the pond, and civil disobedience, about why he spent a night in jail to protest a government
00:02:12that still allowed slavery to exist.
00:02:16It's so unlikely that Henry David Thoreau would suddenly be making his own declaration of independence and bill of rights
00:02:24in this little town next to a pond.
00:02:28There was no search engines there.
00:02:30There was no easy way for accessing the wisdom of the world, but such was his curiosity that he found
00:02:36it.
00:02:37Now, Henry would live other lives as a surveyor, scientist, explorer, and abolitionist, all of which gave him new insights
00:02:48into nature, society, and himself.
00:02:52He would make a discovery about the evolution of species that had eluded even Charles Darwin.
00:02:59He would write an essay that explored the connections between the wildness of nature and a human's desire to be
00:03:07free.
00:03:08He would take a second and third expedition to Maine, where he experienced the Penobscot tribe's intimate relationship with the
00:03:16land, which was even deeper than he imagined possible.
00:03:22And he would support new strategies to try to abolish slavery, even at the risk of compromising his own convictions.
00:03:31The thing he models for us the best is a life committed to ongoing investigation.
00:03:38He talks about always wanting to get two views of the same truth, because the truth will change when you
00:03:42get another view of it.
00:03:44I fear chiefly, lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limits
00:03:53of my daily experience,
00:03:56so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced, as if nature can support but
00:04:04one order of understandings.
00:04:07The universe is wider than our views of it.
00:04:23After he left Walden Pond, Henry spent ten months living at the home of his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo
00:04:31Emerson,
00:04:32while the famous Transcendentalist was traveling abroad.
00:04:37He soon became part of the family.
00:04:39He referred to Emerson's wife, Lydian, as a dear sister.
00:04:44Their three-year-old son, Edward, asked Henry to be his father.
00:04:48The children talk about the things he made for them, a dollhouse, toys, and in one case, he made little
00:04:58mittens for the cats,
00:05:00because Lydian Emerson complains that their feet were cold.
00:05:05Thoreau had quite a social, sociable side in the right company.
00:05:12Every year, he threw a melon party, which the neighbors all look forward to.
00:05:18So there's a liveliness and a cheerfulness and a connectedness to people.
00:05:26By February of 1849, Thoreau completed his final draft of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,
00:05:35about the trip he took with his late brother John.
00:05:38In it, Thoreau transformed their adventure into a mythic voyage by interweaving their experiences
00:05:45with deep references to history, classical Eastern literature, and religion.
00:05:52It was a travelogue of the experience and the landscape at that time, but it was a new thing,
00:05:59filled with philosophy, with Thoreau's poetry, with his thinking and speculating about history and meaning.
00:06:10A Boston publisher agreed to print 1,000 copies of the book,
00:06:15but only if Henry agreed to buy back any that didn't sell.
00:06:21On May 30th, his book was released.
00:06:24The Boston Evening Transcript praised its finely descriptive prose,
00:06:30but some critics were disturbed by Thoreau's suggestion
00:06:33that there was as much wisdom in Eastern religions as in Christianity.
00:06:39His treatment of this subject, the New York Tribune declared,
00:06:43seems revolting to good sense and good taste.
00:06:49Thoreau is saying, yeah, I'm willing to maybe offend you a little here,
00:06:53because I want you to see what I'm saying.
00:06:56That there are other paths, and maybe some of them are equally interesting,
00:06:59or superior to our own.
00:07:02Even members of his own family were upset.
00:07:06There were parts of it that sounded to me very much like blasphemy.
00:07:11Sophia told me Helen made the same remark,
00:07:15and coming from her, Henry was much surprised.
00:07:20Mariah Thoreau.
00:07:22Some people saw it as the first work of great American literature,
00:07:27reflecting American landscapes and American experience,
00:07:30but it wasn't received that way.
00:07:33Henry would eventually have to buy back 706 of the 1,000 books printed,
00:07:40which cost him $300,
00:07:42an entire year's income for the average American.
00:07:46He carried all of them up to his attic room in the Thoreau family home,
00:07:51later joking that he now had a library of nearly 900 volumes,
00:07:56over 700 of which he wrote himself.
00:08:00It would take him four years to repay his debt.
00:08:05On June 14, 1849,
00:08:09Henry's older sister, Helen, died of tuberculosis,
00:08:13the same sickness that had plagued one of Henry's uncles,
00:08:16his late brother, John, and his father, John Sr.
00:08:21Henry himself had experienced symptoms
00:08:24as far back as his college years at Harvard.
00:08:28Thoreau was always aware of the brevity of human life,
00:08:34partly because of the disease that he likely knew he bore.
00:08:39So Thoreau's deep commitment to getting out and exploring
00:08:45must have been tied to his understanding
00:08:48that those lungs were only going to hold out for so long.
00:08:53Wishing to get a better view than I had yet of the ocean,
00:08:57which we are told covers more than two-thirds of the globe,
00:09:01but of which a man who lives a few miles inland
00:09:04may never see any trace,
00:09:07I made a visit to Cape Cod in October 1849.
00:09:13After traveling to Orleans on the elbow of the Cape,
00:09:17Henry and his frequent traveling companion, Ellery Channing,
00:09:20walked 25 miles along the Atlantic coast to Provincetown.
00:09:29All the morning, we had heard the sea roar on the eastern shore.
00:09:34It was a very inspiriting sound to walk by.
00:09:40Instead of having a dog to growl before your door,
00:09:44to have an Atlantic ocean to growl for a whole cape.
00:09:56They observed an ecological system
00:09:59entirely different from the landscape of concrete.
00:10:02Henry took copious notes of what he saw,
00:10:06reveling in the endless cycles of life and death.
00:10:11The seashore is a most advantageous point
00:10:14from which to contemplate this world.
00:10:17It is a wild, rank place,
00:10:21and there is no flattery in it,
00:10:24strewn with whatever the sea casts up,
00:10:27a vast morgue,
00:10:28rotting and bleaching in the sun and waves.
00:10:33And each tide turns them in their beds
00:10:36and tucks fresh sand under them.
00:10:40There is naked nature,
00:10:42inhumanly sincere,
00:10:44wasting no thought on man,
00:10:47nibbling at the cliffy shore
00:10:48where gulls wheel amid the spray.
00:10:57He heard stories of storms and shipwrecks from locals,
00:11:01spent time with an oysterman,
00:11:04and a night in a lighthouse
00:11:05where its bright lamp kept Henry awake.
00:11:09How many sleepless eyes from far out on the ocean,
00:11:13he wondered,
00:11:14were directed toward my couch.
00:11:17He would travel to the Cape four times in all.
00:11:22Thoreau wrote two lectures about his excursions,
00:11:25which were published in Putnam's magazine.
00:11:29Toward the end of his life,
00:11:30he would work closely with his sister Sophia
00:11:33to expand them into a book
00:11:35that she arranged to have published after his death.
00:11:41The time must come when this coast
00:11:44will be a place of resort
00:11:45for those New Englanders
00:11:47who really wish to visit the seaside.
00:11:50If the visitor thinks more of the wine than the brine,
00:11:54as I suspect some do at Newport,
00:11:58I trust that for a long time
00:11:59he will be disappointed here.
00:12:03A storm in the fall or winter
00:12:05is the time to visit it.
00:12:07A lighthouse or a fisherman's hut,
00:12:10the true hotel.
00:12:13A man may stand there
00:12:14and put all America behind him.
00:12:23He lost his older sister, Helen.
00:12:26His father was periodically ill,
00:12:29so Henry's responsibilities
00:12:30for the family economy increased.
00:12:34At the time,
00:12:36there was a growing need for surveyors.
00:12:39Henry had been practicing the craft for years.
00:12:42After assembling a set of surveying tools
00:12:45and passing out flyers,
00:12:47he got to work.
00:12:49He loved measurement.
00:12:52Surveying allowed him to make measurements
00:12:54and earn money.
00:12:56With the most important piece,
00:12:57he could do this outdoors.
00:12:59As knowledgeable as he was about the natural world,
00:13:03there are some contradictions in his ideas.
00:13:06The forest land he surveyed
00:13:09was often clear-cut for raw materials,
00:13:11to set boundaries for new farmland
00:13:14or to build mills and factories,
00:13:16which also required the damning of rivers to run them.
00:13:20He's working for hire,
00:13:23mostly for people who are trying to maximize their profits.
00:13:28He knows what he's doing.
00:13:30At the same time, he's proud of his track record.
00:13:34He becomes famous for precision.
00:13:37He scorned society's dependence on new technologies,
00:13:42like the telegraph
00:13:43and the mass printing of newspapers.
00:13:46Yet he enjoyed them himself.
00:13:48He complained that the train sped up daily life,
00:13:52but it made his lecturing career possible.
00:13:55He traveled by rail more than 70 times.
00:13:59I'm not sure how contradictory Henry was,
00:14:03so much as willing to see things in multiple ways,
00:14:09which, sure, may seem contradictory.
00:14:12If there was some tension between the two,
00:14:15and there was, then I think that's human.
00:14:19All of us are bundles of contradictions.
00:14:26On September 18th, 1850,
00:14:29the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act.
00:14:34The new law made it legal for slave owners
00:14:36to reclaim any runaway, man, woman, or child,
00:14:40even those who had managed to escape
00:14:43to the free states in the North.
00:14:46In April 1851, Thomas Sims,
00:14:50who had escaped from a Georgia rice plantation,
00:14:53was arrested in Boston
00:14:55and sent south to be re-enslaved.
00:14:59The authorities of Boston
00:15:02sent back a perfectly innocent man into slavery.
00:15:07I wish my townsmen to consider that,
00:15:12whatever the human law may be,
00:15:15a government which deliberately enacts
00:15:18injustice and persists in it
00:15:21will become the laughingstock of the world.
00:15:26The average white American North and South
00:15:29knew slavery was wrong.
00:15:31But it was really inconvenient
00:15:33to have to get rid of it.
00:15:35Where does the sugar to sweeten your coffee come from?
00:15:39Where does the rice that you eat come from?
00:15:43The new law also mandated
00:15:45that helping an escaped slave was now a crime.
00:15:49At the time of the 1850s,
00:15:52the fine was up to $1,000,
00:15:55which in our day and time is about $40,000.
00:16:00$40,000.
00:16:02And then up to six months in jail.
00:16:04So you begin to understand
00:16:06the incredible high stakes
00:16:09of continuing to assist.
00:16:13I say, break the law.
00:16:16Let your life be a counter-friction
00:16:19to stop the machine.
00:16:23The women of the Thoreau household
00:16:25had already been active
00:16:27in the Underground Railroad,
00:16:29a secret network of safe houses
00:16:31which abolitionists used
00:16:33to help slaves escape to freedom.
00:16:37Henry began to work alongside them.
00:16:40He escorted a fugitive named Henry Williams
00:16:43from the Thoreau home
00:16:45to the train station in Concord.
00:16:47But after seeing a policeman,
00:16:49he put Williams on a later train
00:16:52to Burlington, Vermont.
00:16:54Williams went on to freedom in Canada,
00:16:58one of several human beings
00:16:59that Henry helped escape.
00:17:03On April 23rd,
00:17:05Henry arrived at the Concord Lyceum
00:17:08to give a lecture called
00:17:09Walking or the Wild.
00:17:14I wish to speak a word for nature,
00:17:17for absolute freedom.
00:17:19And Wildness
00:17:20as contrasted with a freedom
00:17:23and culture merely civil.
00:17:26To regard man as an inhabitant
00:17:29or a part and parcel of nature
00:17:31rather than a member of society.
00:17:35I wish to make an extreme statement.
00:17:38If so, I may make an emphatic one.
00:17:42In Wildness is the preservation of the world.
00:17:48It's not really about walking.
00:17:51I think that he's talking about
00:17:53what it is to be completely free.
00:17:57He's a white, privileged writer
00:17:59who can walk anywhere he wants.
00:18:02A fugitive slave doesn't have time
00:18:04to think about nature.
00:18:05So, when Thoreau writes in Walking
00:18:09that the freedom to walk is essential,
00:18:13he's certainly pointing to
00:18:16to the freedom that all human beings deserved.
00:18:20In a natural world that is flourishing,
00:18:26regenerative, inexhaustible.
00:18:28The freedom that the natural world allows
00:18:32can teach us ideas, hopes, thoughts
00:18:36we didn't know we had.
00:18:40Wildness, it's freedom.
00:18:43Sometimes it's the breeze blowing through the trees
00:18:45or the call of a bird.
00:18:48And so, wildness is, I mean, it's over my shoulder.
00:18:52It's underfoot.
00:18:53It's always in my heart in a way
00:18:55that allows me to access it,
00:18:58even when I can't get to it.
00:19:00Thoreau called his lecture Walking
00:19:02an introduction to all I may write hereafter.
00:19:07Walking, I think, is the birth
00:19:09of the modern environmental thinking.
00:19:12It's one of those things that has grown over time.
00:19:17It's the idea of wild and wilderness
00:19:19can be loved and protected and cared about.
00:19:23It becomes a part of us.
00:19:32In Walden, Thoreau writes,
00:19:34why do precisely these objects
00:19:37which we behold make a world?
00:19:41And in the time after Walden,
00:19:43he turns to science
00:19:45to find the answer to that question.
00:19:49What are these objects?
00:19:52How do they interact with one another?
00:19:55How do they make seasonal change?
00:19:58How do they shape a soul?
00:20:01Endlessly curious,
00:20:03Thoreau began reading zoological
00:20:05and botanical texts,
00:20:07looked at Saturn's rings
00:20:08through his neighbor's telescope,
00:20:10and studied the findings of scientists
00:20:13who had traveled the world.
00:20:15After reading Charles Darwin's
00:20:18Voyages of the Beagle,
00:20:20Henry began seeing his own walks
00:20:22as miniature expeditions
00:20:23in their own right.
00:20:26June 7th.
00:20:28I wonder that I even get five miles on my way.
00:20:32The walk is so crowded with events
00:20:35and phenomena.
00:20:38How many questions there are
00:20:40which I have not put to the inhabitants.
00:20:44He could sit watching a vernal pool
00:20:47for frogs and tadpoles
00:20:50for hours on end.
00:20:52He was willing to invest his time and attention
00:20:55and the dividends paid out in his prose.
00:20:58And then the next thing you know,
00:21:00he's drawing inductions and generalizations.
00:21:02He might do 20 of these a day.
00:21:06Maybe it's one of these things
00:21:07that's feeding on itself
00:21:08in that the more you know
00:21:11and the more detail,
00:21:13the closer you look,
00:21:14the more worlds you see.
00:21:16Just as an observer of nature,
00:21:18he's incredibly acute.
00:21:20And when he's doing that,
00:21:22he's not being romantic.
00:21:23He's being precise and empirical.
00:21:26But he'll veer
00:21:28from talking about
00:21:30some really technical aspect
00:21:32of a flower that he's noticing
00:21:35to something huge,
00:21:38you know,
00:21:38like his relationship to the stars.
00:21:41From the minute
00:21:42to the majestic.
00:21:45Look at anything around you
00:21:47and you can probably find
00:21:50the universe.
00:21:52Time is but the stream
00:21:54I go a-fishing in.
00:21:57I drink at it.
00:21:59But while I drink,
00:22:00I see the sandy bottom
00:22:02and detect how shallow it is.
00:22:06Its thin current slides away.
00:22:10But eternity remains.
00:22:15Like Darwin,
00:22:17Thoreau began discovering
00:22:18and identifying species of trees,
00:22:21plants,
00:22:22and flowers
00:22:23in the greater Concord area.
00:22:25More than 800 in all.
00:22:28His attic room
00:22:29became filled with notebooks,
00:22:31journals,
00:22:32books,
00:22:33maps,
00:22:34charts,
00:22:35tables,
00:22:36as well as collections
00:22:37of rocks,
00:22:38press plants,
00:22:39and birds' nests.
00:22:42He wasn't comfortable
00:22:43calling himself a scientist
00:22:44because the scientist
00:22:46is someone
00:22:47who looks at the world objectively.
00:22:49For Thoreau,
00:22:51when you're looking at something,
00:22:52the thing you're seeing
00:22:53is being filtered
00:22:55through your own experience.
00:22:58Henry called 1852
00:23:00a year of observation.
00:23:03He was extremely patient
00:23:06as an observer of nature,
00:23:08but much less patient
00:23:11in tolerating
00:23:13what he thought
00:23:14were the shortcomings
00:23:16of his neighbors.
00:23:18And there was a bit
00:23:20of a lordliness
00:23:20to Emerson
00:23:22that Henry started to resent.
00:23:25He was always the teacher
00:23:26and Henry would always
00:23:28be the student.
00:23:29And as Henry started to feel
00:23:30that he wasn't
00:23:31just Emerson's student
00:23:33but his equal,
00:23:34tension started to grow.
00:23:37My friend invites me
00:23:39to read my papers to him,
00:23:41Thoreau wrote in his journal.
00:23:43Gladly, I would read
00:23:45if he would hear.
00:23:47There is no intellectual communion.
00:23:50Emerson confided
00:23:52in his journal
00:23:53that Henry was always stubborn
00:23:54and contradictory,
00:23:56writing dismissively,
00:23:57If I knew only Thoreau,
00:23:59I should think
00:24:00cooperation of good men
00:24:02impossible.
00:24:04Thoreau imagined
00:24:05telling Emerson
00:24:06what he really thought.
00:24:08I am offended
00:24:09by your pride,
00:24:10your sometime
00:24:11assumption of dignity,
00:24:13and your manners,
00:24:14which come over me
00:24:16like waves,
00:24:17adding,
00:24:18I am wiser
00:24:19than you think.
00:24:20Thoreau was the
00:24:22prodigal son
00:24:23to Emerson.
00:24:25And Emerson
00:24:26had ideas
00:24:27about, you know,
00:24:28what kind of career
00:24:29Thoreau should have.
00:24:31He never became
00:24:32the writer
00:24:33Emerson hoped
00:24:34he would become
00:24:35because Thoreau
00:24:37was pursuing
00:24:38something else.
00:24:40Thoreau and Emerson
00:24:42were something
00:24:43like father
00:24:44and son,
00:24:45but we see
00:24:46in Thoreau's writings
00:24:47his doubts
00:24:48about whether
00:24:50his relationship
00:24:51with Emerson
00:24:51is good for him.
00:24:53And at a certain point
00:24:55you have to carve out
00:24:56your own space,
00:24:57and that is going
00:24:58to involve
00:24:59pushing against
00:25:00this formative influence.
00:25:03When he fell out
00:25:04with Emerson,
00:25:06he turned
00:25:07to the natural world
00:25:09to reconnect him.
00:25:13At 5 p.m.,
00:25:15September 13,
00:25:171853,
00:25:19I left Boston.
00:25:20in the steamer
00:25:21for Bangor.
00:25:24When I arrived,
00:25:25my companion
00:25:26that was to be
00:25:27had gone upriver
00:25:29and engaged
00:25:30an Indian.
00:25:33In September
00:25:34of 1853,
00:25:36Henry's cousin,
00:25:37George Thatcher,
00:25:38invited him
00:25:39on a moose-hunting
00:25:40expedition
00:25:41to Chisuncook Lake,
00:25:43deep in the Panoxcot
00:25:44ancestral lands
00:25:45of Maine.
00:25:48Ever since he was a boy,
00:25:50Henry had been fascinated
00:25:51by indigenous cultures.
00:25:53For years,
00:25:55he had been reading
00:25:55about the history
00:25:56and customs
00:25:57of native peoples
00:25:58and had compiled
00:25:59what he called
00:26:00his Indian books.
00:26:02They eventually grew
00:26:04to thousands of pages.
00:26:06He was trying to find
00:26:07someone who can
00:26:09bring to life
00:26:10and test
00:26:10what he's been reading
00:26:11about all these years.
00:26:13They hired
00:26:14a Panoxcot tribal leader
00:26:16named Joseph Atien.
00:26:19Joseph Atien was
00:26:21the son of the chief
00:26:22of the tribe,
00:26:24and Atien was considered
00:26:25the best boatman
00:26:26on the river.
00:26:28At first glance,
00:26:29Henry was disappointed.
00:26:32Thoreau was surprised
00:26:32by how acculturated
00:26:34Atien is
00:26:35to white norms.
00:26:36He wears white clothing,
00:26:38he speaks English,
00:26:39he travels in the woods
00:26:40with Western gear,
00:26:42a rifle,
00:26:43and salt pork.
00:26:44He wanted somebody
00:26:45who more matched
00:26:46his idea
00:26:47of what an Indian
00:26:47should be.
00:26:48But as they canoed
00:26:50up the Panoxcot River,
00:26:52Henry began
00:26:53to change his mind.
00:26:54He was impressed
00:26:55by Atien's knowledge
00:26:57of the wilderness
00:26:58and his skills
00:26:59at tracking moose.
00:27:01Thatcher eventually
00:27:02shot one,
00:27:03but it disappeared
00:27:04into the woods.
00:27:06Atien found the moose,
00:27:08skinned it,
00:27:08and carved off
00:27:09a portion of the meat,
00:27:11taking as much of it
00:27:12as he could carry.
00:27:14Thatcher was only
00:27:15interested in the antlers
00:27:16and the bullet.
00:27:19It's a sport,
00:27:20and they're slaying
00:27:22these animals,
00:27:23and you can't
00:27:24possibly eat that
00:27:25much meat,
00:27:27so they're leaving
00:27:28the carcasses to rot,
00:27:30which is totally
00:27:31outside our cultural beliefs.
00:27:35Thoreau was appalled.
00:27:37This hunting of the moose
00:27:38merely for the satisfaction
00:27:40of killing him,
00:27:41he wrote,
00:27:42is too much like
00:27:43going out
00:27:43to some woodside pasture
00:27:45and shooting
00:27:46your neighbor's horses.
00:27:50Toward the end
00:27:51of the trip,
00:27:52Atien invited him
00:27:53and Thatcher
00:27:54to camp with some
00:27:55local Indians.
00:27:58We lay on our backs
00:28:00talking with them
00:28:01till midnight.
00:28:04There can be no more
00:28:05startling evidence
00:28:07of there being a distinct
00:28:09and comparatively
00:28:10aboriginal race
00:28:11than to hear this
00:28:13unaltered Indian language.
00:28:17It took me by surprise.
00:28:20These were the sounds
00:28:21that issued
00:28:21from the wigwams
00:28:23of this country
00:28:24before Columbus
00:28:25was born.
00:28:27They have not yet
00:28:29died away.
00:28:30He realizes that
00:28:33there are parts
00:28:34of this culture
00:28:34that are still vibrant
00:28:36and are going to live on
00:28:38despite colonization.
00:28:43We've survived
00:28:45by remaining invisible.
00:28:48It's still with us
00:28:50that feeling.
00:28:53People don't understand.
00:28:54There's things
00:28:55about our culture
00:28:56there's no words for.
00:28:59On their way home,
00:29:01Henry and George Thatcher
00:29:02stopped at Indian Island,
00:29:04the same Penobscot settlement
00:29:06Henry had considered
00:29:07forlorn and dreary
00:29:09on his first trip to Maine
00:29:10seven years before.
00:29:13It's the same village
00:29:15but he's able
00:29:16to see it differently.
00:29:17He can see the village
00:29:18for what it is
00:29:19which is a community
00:29:21of people
00:29:21who are making do
00:29:23in the present.
00:29:29The Boston courthouse
00:29:31is full of armed men
00:29:33holding prisoner
00:29:34and trying a man
00:29:36to find out
00:29:38if he is not really
00:29:39a slave.
00:29:41It was really
00:29:43the trial of Massachusetts.
00:29:46Every moment
00:29:47that she now hesitates
00:29:49to atone for her crime,
00:29:52she is convicted.
00:29:55In late May 1854,
00:29:58an escaped slave
00:29:59named Anthony Burns
00:30:00was arrested in Boston
00:30:02by federal marshals.
00:30:03His southern enslaver
00:30:05came up from Virginia
00:30:06and took his property back.
00:30:10A week later,
00:30:12Congress passed
00:30:13the Kansas-Nebraska Act
00:30:14which empowered
00:30:16newly formed states
00:30:17in America's
00:30:18western territories
00:30:19to decide for themselves
00:30:20whether to permit slavery.
00:30:24Thoreau was enraged.
00:30:27On July 4th,
00:30:29a protest rally
00:30:30was held
00:30:30in South Framingham,
00:30:32Massachusetts
00:30:33with speeches
00:30:34by abolitionists
00:30:35William Lloyd Garrison,
00:30:37Wendell Phillips,
00:30:39Sojourner Truth,
00:30:40and Henry David Thoreau.
00:30:44Thoreau spoke
00:30:45in the afternoon.
00:30:46The lecture podium
00:30:48itself had the American flag
00:30:50turned upside down
00:30:51to indicate the danger
00:30:53to the country.
00:30:54It was a very,
00:30:55very hot July 4th
00:30:57and the day's incendiary nature
00:31:00matched the heat.
00:31:01I feel that my investment
00:31:04in life here
00:31:05is worth many percent less
00:31:08since Massachusetts
00:31:10last deliberately
00:31:12sent back
00:31:14an innocent man,
00:31:16Anthony Burns,
00:31:17to slavery.
00:31:20Man's influence
00:31:21and authority
00:31:23were on the side
00:31:24of the slaveholder
00:31:26and not of the slave,
00:31:28of the guilty
00:31:30and not
00:31:31of the innocent,
00:31:32of injustice
00:31:35and not of justice.
00:31:38Nowadays,
00:31:39men wear
00:31:40a fool's cap
00:31:42and call it
00:31:43a liberty cap.
00:31:46I love the way
00:31:47that Thoreau
00:31:49called out
00:31:50everybody.
00:31:51He didn't just
00:31:52call out
00:31:53the Southerners.
00:31:56He was calling out
00:31:58people in Massachusetts
00:32:00and he wasn't shy
00:32:02about that.
00:32:04Show me
00:32:05a free state
00:32:06and a court
00:32:07truly
00:32:08of justice
00:32:09and I will fight
00:32:11for them
00:32:11if need be.
00:32:13But show me
00:32:14Massachusetts
00:32:15and I refuse
00:32:17her
00:32:18my allegiance
00:32:20and express
00:32:22contempt
00:32:22for her courts.
00:32:26He says,
00:32:28laws will not
00:32:28make men free.
00:32:29Men must make
00:32:30the laws free.
00:32:32So,
00:32:32to be a good citizen
00:32:33of the government,
00:32:34you have to be willing
00:32:36to argue with it.
00:32:37You have to be willing
00:32:39to disobey it.
00:32:40This is the way
00:32:41to express
00:32:41your love
00:32:42and patriotism.
00:32:44I walk
00:32:45toward one
00:32:46of our ponds,
00:32:46but what signifies
00:32:49the beauty
00:32:50of nature
00:32:50when men
00:32:52are base?
00:32:54Who can be serene
00:32:56in a country
00:32:57where both the rulers
00:32:59and the ruled
00:33:01are without principle?
00:33:04The remembrance
00:33:05of my country
00:33:06spoils my walk.
00:33:12alone in the distant
00:33:13woods or fields,
00:33:16even in a bleak
00:33:16and to most
00:33:18cheerless day
00:33:19like this,
00:33:20cold and solitude
00:33:22are friends of mine.
00:33:25I wish to get
00:33:26the conquered
00:33:27of Massachusetts,
00:33:29the America
00:33:30out of my head
00:33:31and be sane
00:33:33a part of every day.
00:33:35I wish to be made better.
00:33:37I wish to forget.
00:33:42Thoreau now began
00:33:43to feel a weakness
00:33:44in his legs,
00:33:45another symptom
00:33:47of tuberculosis
00:33:48that left him,
00:33:49he wrote,
00:33:50sick and good
00:33:51for nothing
00:33:51but to lie
00:33:52on my back.
00:33:54Thoreau had tuberculosis
00:33:56most of his adult life
00:33:57and it's a wasting disease
00:33:59that makes you
00:34:00weak and exhausted.
00:34:02He had a terminal disease
00:34:04and he knew it.
00:34:06When he's talking
00:34:08about driving life
00:34:09into a corner,
00:34:11not getting to the end
00:34:12of his life
00:34:13and saying he has not lived,
00:34:15he means that.
00:34:17He's saying,
00:34:18I don't know
00:34:18when my time's
00:34:19going to be up.
00:34:19I'm not going
00:34:20to waste a minute.
00:34:21He kept active,
00:34:23traveling to visit friends,
00:34:25making trips
00:34:26to do research
00:34:27at the Harvard Library
00:34:28and continuing
00:34:30to work
00:34:30as a surveyor.
00:34:32He even took
00:34:33two lengthy
00:34:34walking excursions
00:34:35to Cape Cod.
00:34:37In July of 1857,
00:34:40he left on his third
00:34:41and most ambitious
00:34:42trip to Maine,
00:34:43this time
00:34:44with his friend,
00:34:46Edward Hoare.
00:34:49The first stop,
00:34:50once again,
00:34:51was on Indian Island
00:34:53to find a guide.
00:34:55So in his third journey,
00:34:57the Indian guide
00:34:57becomes the whole point.
00:34:59I think there's
00:35:00a very clear sense
00:35:01that he wants to find
00:35:02someone who can
00:35:03bring to life
00:35:04and test what he's
00:35:05been reading about
00:35:05all these years
00:35:06in Indian notebooks.
00:35:07And I think he really
00:35:09wanted to have
00:35:11a more immersive
00:35:12experience
00:35:14and really get
00:35:16to know
00:35:16what it means
00:35:18to be in this nature.
00:35:21They hired Joe Polis,
00:35:23a Penobscot
00:35:24spiritual and political leader.
00:35:27Polis is in his yard.
00:35:29He's skinning a deer hide
00:35:31against a slanted log,
00:35:33but he's amongst
00:35:35these manicured
00:35:36gardens.
00:35:38There's some sophistication
00:35:39to Polis.
00:35:40He's articulate,
00:35:42he's very knowledgeable,
00:35:44but he also
00:35:45is very indigenous.
00:35:48And Thoreau's trying
00:35:49to grapple with
00:35:50those two pieces
00:35:51of Polis.
00:35:56Together,
00:35:57they would travel
00:35:58more than 300 miles
00:35:59up the Aliash Lakes
00:36:01and then down
00:36:02the east branch
00:36:03of the Penobscot River
00:36:04by canoe
00:36:05and on foot,
00:36:07including portages
00:36:08around waterfalls
00:36:09and river rapids.
00:36:11They carried the canoe
00:36:12and their supplies,
00:36:14hundreds of pounds
00:36:15in all,
00:36:16through mosquito-infested,
00:36:18muddy swamps
00:36:19and dense forests.
00:36:21The trip gave Henry
00:36:23another opportunity
00:36:24to learn about how natives
00:36:26negotiated
00:36:27the Maine wilderness.
00:36:31Thoreau is watching
00:36:32Penobscot person
00:36:33living with incredibly
00:36:35intricate knowledge
00:36:35of the land
00:36:36as part of who they are.
00:36:40when we say,
00:36:41all our relations,
00:36:45we mean everything.
00:36:48Minerals,
00:36:49trees, rocks,
00:36:51those are our relations
00:36:52because without them
00:36:55we know it'd be nothing,
00:36:56right?
00:36:58Thoreau thinks,
00:36:59I can never have
00:37:01that other half
00:37:01of what Polis has,
00:37:03an indigenous half.
00:37:06Polis taught Henry
00:37:07the words his people used
00:37:09for plants and herbs,
00:37:11leaves and roots.
00:37:15It's a dynamic,
00:37:16verb-oriented language.
00:37:20A jesatigwe
00:37:21is one who's painted
00:37:23many colors.
00:37:24That's a dragonfly.
00:37:26The word for
00:37:27a birch bark canoe
00:37:28is agguidin.
00:37:30And it means
00:37:31that which floats lightly.
00:37:33You get this characteristic
00:37:35that is embedded
00:37:37within the meaning
00:37:39of that word.
00:37:40The more he asks Polis
00:37:42about what each word is,
00:37:44the closer he is getting
00:37:46to understand
00:37:47that indigenous worldview
00:37:48of the nature around him.
00:37:50And what a gift.
00:37:53Thoreau instantly grasped
00:37:55that means
00:37:56the American white culture
00:37:57has a lot to learn
00:37:58from native people.
00:38:00A very different way
00:38:00of being in the world.
00:38:02And language
00:38:02is one of the key
00:38:03entry points into it.
00:38:06For Thoreau,
00:38:07going from calling
00:38:09the tribe
00:38:09on its way
00:38:10to extinction
00:38:11to a point where
00:38:13Polis is a person
00:38:14who he admires
00:38:15the most.
00:38:17He sees these
00:38:18men beyond
00:38:19the color of their skin.
00:38:22And he grows
00:38:23as a human being
00:38:25in relationship
00:38:27to this indigenous culture.
00:38:29But his goal
00:38:30was never really
00:38:31to use that
00:38:31to politically
00:38:32help native communities.
00:38:35His goal
00:38:35was really
00:38:36to reform
00:38:36white society,
00:38:38to make it more responsive
00:38:39to the environment,
00:38:41to make it less immersed
00:38:42in this really rapacious
00:38:44capitalist world
00:38:45he can see coming.
00:38:48And he comes back
00:38:49from Maine
00:38:49with a deeper
00:38:51appreciation
00:38:51for what it means
00:38:52to live
00:38:53in your native ground.
00:38:55And eventually
00:38:56he starts to go
00:38:57over his journals
00:38:58and gather the notes
00:38:59in his own place.
00:39:00And to track
00:39:01much more carefully
00:39:02the phenomenon
00:39:03of Conquer
00:39:04that will become
00:39:05the calendar project.
00:39:06This great final project
00:39:07which is this
00:39:08grand account
00:39:09of the Conquer ecosystem.
00:39:13Why should just
00:39:14these sights
00:39:15and sounds
00:39:16accompany our life?
00:39:18I would fain
00:39:19explore
00:39:20the mysterious relation
00:39:21between myself
00:39:22and these things.
00:39:25Make a chart
00:39:26of our life.
00:39:28Know how its shores
00:39:29trend,
00:39:30that butterflies
00:39:31reappear
00:39:32and when.
00:39:34Know why
00:39:35just this circle
00:39:36of creatures
00:39:37completes the world.
00:39:40The depth
00:39:42of what he included
00:39:43in his records
00:39:44is pretty unique.
00:39:46He cared enough
00:39:48about it
00:39:49to want to be present
00:39:51at the opening
00:39:52of every wildflower
00:39:54in the spring.
00:39:56The calendar charts
00:39:58are the study
00:39:59of the climate
00:40:01as it changes
00:40:02through the seasons.
00:40:03And he always
00:40:05was moving
00:40:05toward this kind
00:40:06of greater and greater
00:40:07fullness of vision.
00:40:08to bring
00:40:10many perspectives,
00:40:11many temporal points
00:40:13together
00:40:13into a kind
00:40:15of symphony.
00:40:17Thoreau
00:40:17poured through
00:40:18decades
00:40:19of his seasonal
00:40:20observations
00:40:20and combined them
00:40:22with new ones,
00:40:23creating records
00:40:24so precise
00:40:25they have proven
00:40:26to be invaluable
00:40:27for scientists
00:40:28measuring the effects
00:40:29of climate change
00:40:30almost 200 years later.
00:40:34You can't see climate
00:40:35but you can see
00:40:37the manifestation
00:40:38of a climate change
00:40:39in the phenomenon
00:40:40around you.
00:40:41So if you can
00:40:42have measurements
00:40:43from the 1850s
00:40:45people can really
00:40:47understand things
00:40:48have changed.
00:40:50He wrote,
00:40:51don't underrate
00:40:52the value
00:40:52of a fact.
00:40:54One day
00:40:55a fact will flower
00:40:56into a truth.
00:40:58in the summer
00:40:59of 1859
00:41:01Henry also
00:41:02began collecting
00:41:03data about
00:41:03the ever-changing
00:41:04Concord River.
00:41:07Henry began
00:41:08to see the river
00:41:09as a whole entity
00:41:10with its own
00:41:12unique history,
00:41:13culture,
00:41:14and laws.
00:41:15The data he collected
00:41:16was for him
00:41:18further proof
00:41:19of what he had seen
00:41:20in Maine,
00:41:21Cape Cod,
00:41:22and elsewhere.
00:41:23The signs
00:41:24of inevitable decline
00:41:26caused by human efforts
00:41:27to tame
00:41:28nature's wildness.
00:41:32He began
00:41:33to imagine
00:41:33natural places
00:41:34that humankind
00:41:35might one day
00:41:37simply leave alone.
00:41:39Where a stick
00:41:40should never be cut
00:41:41for fuel.
00:41:42A common possession
00:41:44forever.
00:41:45He spent 18 months
00:41:47with the River Project
00:41:48and he was still
00:41:50on it hardcore
00:41:51until the John Brown
00:41:52affair kicked in.
00:41:53And when that kicked in,
00:41:55he dropped it
00:41:55because that's
00:41:56the higher calling.
00:41:58In his essay
00:42:00Civil Disobedience,
00:42:02Thoreau had asserted
00:42:03that each citizen
00:42:04should resist
00:42:05a government
00:42:05that supported slavery.
00:42:08A militant abolitionist
00:42:10named John Brown
00:42:11had a more aggressive
00:42:12strategy,
00:42:14armed resistance.
00:42:17Back in 1856,
00:42:19after a series
00:42:20of clashes
00:42:21between pro-
00:42:22and anti-slavery
00:42:23militia,
00:42:24Brown had killed
00:42:25five unarmed
00:42:26pro-slavery settlers
00:42:27in Kansas.
00:42:30Brown traveled
00:42:31to Concord
00:42:31in 1857
00:42:33looking for support
00:42:34for his cause
00:42:35and went there again
00:42:36in May of 1859.
00:42:39During that visit,
00:42:40Henry met with Brown
00:42:42and would later
00:42:43describe him
00:42:43as a meteor
00:42:44flashing through
00:42:45the darkness
00:42:46in which we live.
00:42:49that fall,
00:42:50John Brown
00:42:51and his men
00:42:52raided the federal
00:42:53armory
00:42:54at Harper's Ferry,
00:42:55Virginia,
00:42:56hoping to arm
00:42:57a slave uprising
00:42:58with the weapons there.
00:43:01They failed
00:43:02and Brown
00:43:03was captured.
00:43:05John Brown
00:43:07is a conundrum.
00:43:08You can look at him
00:43:09very clearly
00:43:10and make an argument
00:43:11that he is a terrorist
00:43:13and you can also
00:43:14call him a liberator.
00:43:15But it became
00:43:17a tipping point,
00:43:18John Brown.
00:43:18He became
00:43:19a symbol
00:43:20for anti-slavery.
00:43:22It galls me
00:43:23to listen to the remarks
00:43:24of craven-hearted neighbors
00:43:26who speak
00:43:28disparagingly
00:43:29of Brown
00:43:30because he resorted
00:43:32to violence,
00:43:33resisted the government,
00:43:34threw his life away.
00:43:37What way
00:43:38have they thrown
00:43:38their lives,
00:43:40pray?
00:43:41Such minds
00:43:42are not equal
00:43:43to the occasion.
00:43:46He sits down
00:43:47and he writes
00:43:48and he writes
00:43:49and he writes
00:43:50assuming that Brown
00:43:52will be executed.
00:43:54He wants to get
00:43:56the word out
00:43:57before a judgment
00:43:59is made.
00:44:01On October 30th,
00:44:03Thoreau gave a fiery speech
00:44:05in Concord,
00:44:06the first person
00:44:07to publicly defend
00:44:08Brown's actions.
00:44:10I do not wish
00:44:11to kill
00:44:12or be killed,
00:44:13he asserted,
00:44:14but I can foresee
00:44:15circumstances
00:44:16in which both
00:44:17these things
00:44:18would be by me
00:44:19unavoidable.
00:44:22He's saying
00:44:23forget the law,
00:44:24forget what the
00:44:25federal government
00:44:25says,
00:44:26you know what's
00:44:27right and wrong.
00:44:28And if people
00:44:29have to die
00:44:30to do away
00:44:31with slavery,
00:44:31we have an obligation
00:44:32to do it.
00:44:34John Brown
00:44:36was hanged
00:44:37on December 2nd.
00:44:40Thoreau wrote
00:44:40a news speech
00:44:41called
00:44:42The Last Days
00:44:43of John Brown.
00:44:44It was read aloud
00:44:46six months later
00:44:47at Brown's gravesite.
00:44:50He is the clearest light
00:44:51that shines
00:44:52on this land,
00:44:53he wrote.
00:44:54He is an angel
00:44:55of light.
00:44:58What is it
00:44:59about John Brown
00:45:00that so shifts,
00:45:02like it's a seismic
00:45:04shift in Henry
00:45:06David's life?
00:45:07He realized
00:45:08what it takes
00:45:10to achieve change.
00:45:13The issue
00:45:14of slavery
00:45:14would be decided
00:45:16on the battlefield.
00:45:24January 1st, 1860,
00:45:27a friend of Thoreau's
00:45:28invited him
00:45:29to a dinner party
00:45:30because they just
00:45:31got a copy
00:45:32of a new book
00:45:32by Charles Darwin,
00:45:34Origin of Species.
00:45:36Thoreau quickly
00:45:37got a hold
00:45:37of that book
00:45:38and read it voraciously.
00:45:42Darwin's Origin of Species
00:45:44introduced
00:45:45natural selection.
00:45:47The idea
00:45:48that the most
00:45:48adaptable members
00:45:49of a species
00:45:50pass on their traits
00:45:52to the next generation
00:45:54instead of the
00:45:55long-established belief
00:45:56that all species
00:45:58had been created
00:45:59by God.
00:46:01Thoreau was so excited
00:46:03by what he read
00:46:04in Darwin
00:46:05because Thoreau too
00:46:07saw a world
00:46:08that was dynamic,
00:46:11constantly undergoing
00:46:12transformation.
00:46:14He was puzzled
00:46:15by why he would
00:46:15cut down pines
00:46:16and oaks would
00:46:17spring up
00:46:17and why you would
00:46:18cut down oaks
00:46:19and pines would
00:46:20spring up.
00:46:21So he pursues
00:46:22his own idiosyncratic
00:46:23form of science.
00:46:25One day in June
00:46:27of 1860,
00:46:28he threw a stick
00:46:29of wood
00:46:29against a pine tree
00:46:31in bloom.
00:46:32As the pollen
00:46:33floated away
00:46:34in a cloud,
00:46:35he realized
00:46:36just how far
00:46:37it could travel.
00:46:41Charles Darwin said
00:46:43there's something
00:46:43that we don't
00:46:44understand,
00:46:45which is
00:46:46how it is
00:46:47that the succession
00:46:48of forest trees
00:46:49works in North America.
00:46:51And it must have
00:46:53astonished Thoreau
00:46:54because he had been
00:46:55working on precisely
00:46:57that scientific question
00:46:58intensively for
00:47:00three or four years.
00:47:03In September,
00:47:05Thoreau delivered
00:47:06a lecture
00:47:06called
00:47:07Succession of Forest
00:47:08Trees,
00:47:09in which he answered
00:47:10the question
00:47:11that had puzzled
00:47:12Darwin.
00:47:13The key to the mystery
00:47:14of how different
00:47:15species of trees
00:47:16grew
00:47:17where they hadn't
00:47:18before,
00:47:19Thoreau argued,
00:47:20was seeds.
00:47:23A beautiful
00:47:25thin sack
00:47:26is woven
00:47:27around the seed
00:47:28with a handle
00:47:29to it
00:47:29such as the wind
00:47:31can take hold of
00:47:32and it is then
00:47:34committed to the wind
00:47:35expressly
00:47:36that it may
00:47:37transport the seed
00:47:38and extend
00:47:39the range
00:47:40of the species.
00:47:42This is
00:47:43new knowledge.
00:47:45Because seeds
00:47:46travel,
00:47:47he could prove
00:47:48that species
00:47:49were moving
00:47:50often great distances
00:47:52across landscapes.
00:47:54I have great
00:47:55faith
00:47:56in a seed.
00:47:58Convince me
00:47:59you have a seed
00:48:00there
00:48:00and I am prepared
00:48:01to expect
00:48:02wonders.
00:48:06Thoreau's literary
00:48:08agent in New York,
00:48:09Horace Greeley,
00:48:10published the essay
00:48:11and it was picked up
00:48:12by newspapers
00:48:13nationwide.
00:48:15He'd worked out
00:48:16the complete theory.
00:48:18It turned him
00:48:19into our first
00:48:20first pioneering
00:48:21plant ecologist.
00:48:23He literally
00:48:24invented
00:48:25an entire science.
00:48:33August 15th,
00:48:361861.
00:48:37My cold
00:48:39turned to
00:48:40bronchitis,
00:48:41which made me
00:48:43a close
00:48:43prisoner.
00:48:45My ordinary pursuits,
00:48:47both indoor
00:48:48and out
00:48:49have been
00:48:50for the most part
00:48:51omitted.
00:48:53Indeed,
00:48:54I have been sick
00:48:54so long
00:48:55that I have
00:48:56almost forgotten
00:48:57what it is
00:48:58to be well.
00:49:00In early spring,
00:49:02Henry had begun
00:49:03having more
00:49:04serious symptoms
00:49:04of the illness
00:49:05that had plagued him
00:49:06off and on
00:49:07for most of his life.
00:49:10Henry contracted
00:49:11what he hoped
00:49:13was a cold
00:49:13and then
00:49:15perhaps hoped
00:49:16was bronchitis,
00:49:17but indeed
00:49:18was tuberculosis
00:49:19in 1860.
00:49:20He would have
00:49:21known the signs.
00:49:23In September,
00:49:25he managed
00:49:26to visit
00:49:26Walden Pond.
00:49:28Sophia was with him.
00:49:30It would be
00:49:32his last trip there.
00:49:35His illness
00:49:36steadily worsened
00:49:37and eventually
00:49:38confined him
00:49:39to his bed
00:49:40in the family home.
00:49:42He could write
00:49:43only intermittently.
00:49:45When Henry
00:49:46could no longer
00:49:47hold a pen,
00:49:48Sophia served
00:49:49as his scribe.
00:49:51Together,
00:49:52they collected,
00:49:53edited,
00:49:53and revised
00:49:54essays that would
00:49:55become
00:49:56The Maine Woods
00:49:57and Cape Cod.
00:49:59And he always
00:50:00was moving
00:50:01toward this kind of
00:50:02greater and greater
00:50:03fullness of vision,
00:50:04but he knows
00:50:05he doesn't have long.
00:50:08He couldn't
00:50:09walk outside anymore.
00:50:11So his own journal
00:50:13becomes his
00:50:13representation of nature
00:50:15that he could then
00:50:15walk into.
00:50:20It is pleasant
00:50:21to walk over
00:50:22the beds
00:50:23of these fresh,
00:50:24crisp,
00:50:25and rustling leaves.
00:50:27They that soared
00:50:29so loftily
00:50:30and are laid low,
00:50:32resigned to lie
00:50:34and decay
00:50:34at the foot
00:50:36of the tree
00:50:36and afford nourishment
00:50:39to new generations
00:50:40of their kind,
00:50:42as well as to flutter
00:50:44on high.
00:50:45They teach us
00:50:47how to die.
00:50:50Surrounded by his family,
00:50:53Henry David Thoreau
00:50:54died at 9 o'clock
00:50:56in the morning
00:50:56on May 6, 1862.
00:50:59He was just 44 years old.
00:51:03His passing
00:51:04was so peaceful
00:51:05that Sophia wrote,
00:51:07I feel as if
00:51:08something very beautiful
00:51:09has happened.
00:51:11Some say
00:51:12the last words
00:51:13of the naturalist
00:51:14who had so many
00:51:16transcendent experiences
00:51:17were simply
00:51:18moose,
00:51:20Indian.
00:51:22Sophia,
00:51:23who was reading to him
00:51:24about his river trip
00:51:25with John,
00:51:26said that his last words
00:51:28were,
00:51:29now comes good sailing.
00:51:37We found our boat
00:51:38in the dawn
00:51:39just as we had left it,
00:51:42as if waiting for us
00:51:44there on the shore,
00:51:46all cool
00:51:47and dripping with dew.
00:51:51We too,
00:51:52brothers and natives
00:51:54of Concord,
00:51:55with a vigorous shove,
00:51:57we launched our boat
00:51:58from the bank
00:51:59and dropped silently
00:52:01down the stream.
00:52:04We bade adieu
00:52:05to familiar outlines
00:52:06and addressed ourselves
00:52:08to new scenes
00:52:10and adventures.
00:52:13Nought was familiar
00:52:14but the heavens.
00:52:23Three days later,
00:52:25after the church bell
00:52:26tolled 44 times,
00:52:28Concord gathered
00:52:30for his funeral.
00:52:32School had been
00:52:33dismissed early
00:52:34so that the students,
00:52:36more than 300 in all,
00:52:38could attend.
00:52:40Ralph Waldo Emerson
00:52:42delivered the eulogy.
00:52:46He was bred
00:52:47to no profession.
00:52:49He never married.
00:52:51He lived alone.
00:52:53He chose wisely,
00:52:55no doubt for himself,
00:52:57to be the bachelor
00:52:58of thought and nature.
00:53:01Mr. Thoreau
00:53:02dedicated his genius
00:53:04with such entire love
00:53:06to the fields,
00:53:08hills,
00:53:09and waters
00:53:10of his native town.
00:53:12He knew the country
00:53:14like a fox
00:53:15or a bird
00:53:16and passed through it
00:53:18as freely
00:53:19by paths of his own.
00:53:21I cannot help
00:53:23counting it
00:53:24a fault in him
00:53:25that he had
00:53:26no ambition.
00:53:28Wanting this,
00:53:30instead of engineering
00:53:32for all America,
00:53:33he was the captain
00:53:35of a Huckleberry party.
00:53:38But these foibles,
00:53:40real or apparent,
00:53:42were fast vanishing
00:53:43in the incessant growth
00:53:45of a spirit
00:53:46so robust and wise,
00:53:49so noble a soul
00:53:50that he should depart
00:53:52out of nature
00:53:53before yet he has been
00:53:55really shown
00:53:55to his peers
00:53:56for what he is.
00:54:00But he, at least,
00:54:02is content.
00:54:05The last sentence
00:54:06in Walden is
00:54:07the sun is but
00:54:08a morning star.
00:54:10What does he mean?
00:54:11It means
00:54:12you've just begun
00:54:14to think through
00:54:15the meaning
00:54:16and the significance
00:54:18of what I've
00:54:19produced here.
00:54:35As Thoreau said,
00:54:38don't, when you come
00:54:39to die,
00:54:40discover that
00:54:42you have not lived.
00:54:44He died young,
00:54:46but he didn't end
00:54:48his life realizing
00:54:50he had not lived.
00:54:52It happens to millions
00:54:54of people today
00:54:54and then
00:54:56to realize,
00:54:57I just existed.
00:54:58I just lived.
00:54:59I don't know what it meant.
00:55:01I never really figured it out.
00:55:03He was arguing
00:55:05for being aware
00:55:06at all times,
00:55:08to waking up
00:55:09to the facts
00:55:10of your life,
00:55:11to being conscious,
00:55:13being aware,
00:55:14being present.
00:55:18The mass of men
00:55:20lead lives
00:55:21of quiet desperation.
00:55:24They honestly think
00:55:26there is no choice left.
00:55:29Most of the luxuries
00:55:30and many of the so-called
00:55:32comforts of life
00:55:33are not only
00:55:35not indispensable,
00:55:37but positive hindrances
00:55:39to the elevation
00:55:41of mankind.
00:55:44We built the world
00:55:45that Thoreau feared,
00:55:47a world that's so noisy
00:55:49and crowded
00:55:50that we don't have
00:55:51any time to think
00:55:52for ourselves anymore.
00:55:54Most people are hostage
00:55:56to their upbringing,
00:55:57their economic status,
00:56:00and they don't get excited
00:56:02about the adventure
00:56:03of being alive.
00:56:04And it's like watching
00:56:06an incredible birthright
00:56:07being extinguished
00:56:09because we're muddling
00:56:10through life.
00:56:12And that's the death
00:56:13of freedom.
00:56:16Many of the decisions
00:56:18that pertain to our lives
00:56:19have been made by others,
00:56:21been made by circumstances
00:56:22that have been
00:56:23beyond our control.
00:56:24A very human-centered
00:56:26view of the world
00:56:27has now raised
00:56:29the temperature
00:56:30to the point
00:56:30where our great forests
00:56:32catch on fire,
00:56:34where already
00:56:36hundreds of millions
00:56:37millions of people
00:56:38can no longer live
00:56:39in the places
00:56:40where they were born.
00:56:43Thoreau intuits
00:56:44that if we're going
00:56:45to make it,
00:56:46we're going to have
00:56:47to turn to the natural
00:56:48world for help.
00:56:50In wildness
00:56:51is the preservation
00:56:53of the world.
00:56:54It feels as if
00:56:56the whole living world
00:56:58is calling out
00:57:00to us to pay attention.
00:57:02But he says,
00:57:03you know,
00:57:03even in the muck
00:57:04of all this,
00:57:06I encountered
00:57:07a white water lily.
00:57:09And lilies like that
00:57:10grow in slime
00:57:12and grow in spite of it.
00:57:16He was open always
00:57:19to accepting signs
00:57:21from nature
00:57:22that all was not lost.
00:57:24Thoreau was saying,
00:57:25if you're beginning
00:57:26to die within,
00:57:27take measures right now.
00:57:29There must be some cabin
00:57:30in the woods within you.
00:57:32There must be some space
00:57:33where you can regenerate
00:57:35yourself and remember
00:57:36what is most essential
00:57:37to you.
00:57:39I think Thoreau gives us
00:57:41the bridge to do that.
00:57:42If we would just open up
00:57:45our heads and hearts
00:57:47to those lessons,
00:57:49I think it could take us
00:57:50a long way on that path.
00:57:52And here he is,
00:57:55still offering these messages.
00:57:58It's up to us
00:57:59to open the book
00:58:00and read.
00:58:02There is a season
00:58:04for everything.
00:58:07You must live
00:58:08in the present.
00:58:09Launch yourself
00:58:10on every wave.
00:58:13Find your eternity
00:58:14in each moment.
00:58:17Fools stand on their
00:58:20island of opportunities
00:58:21and look toward
00:58:23another land.
00:58:25There is no other land.
00:58:27There is no other life
00:58:30but this.
00:58:33Henry David Thoreau.
00:58:48The eventsĐ¸Đ»ÑŒ has exercised
00:58:50if they want to
00:58:50throw you
00:58:51than
00:58:51and
00:58:52toss you
00:58:52And
00:59:04it's
00:59:32Scan this QR code with your smart device.
00:59:35To watch the whole series and learn more about Henry David Thoreau.
00:59:41The Henry David Thoreau DVD is available online and in stores.
00:59:46The series is also available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video.
00:59:51The Digital Companion soundtrack is also available online.
01:00:25The Digital Companion soundtrack is available on Amazon Prime Video.
01:00:25The Digital Companion soundtrack is available on Amazon Prime Video.
01:00:54The Digital Companion soundtrack is available on Amazon Prime Video.
01:01:19The Digital Companion soundtrack is available on Amazon Prime Video.
01:01:35The Digital Companion soundtrack is available on Amazon Prime Video and other
01:01:42additional funding from India.
01:01:44Quimby Foundation, Jim and Mona Milan through the HeartSpace Fund, and Elizabeth Kenney.
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