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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, to move to town and see, well, can I
00:01:18bring this with me?
00:01:19Can I meet new challenges and a new environment?
00:01:24So 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.
00:02:34But such was his curiosity that he found it.
00:02:36Now, 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,
00:04:02as if nature can support but one 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.
00:04:43Their 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 complained 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 looked 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,
00:06:14but 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.
00:07:05There were parts of it that sounded to me very much like blasphemy.
00:07:12Sophia 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,
00:07:26reflecting 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, Henry'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 as 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
00:08:44must have been tied to his understanding
00:08:47that 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 may 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,
00:09:16Henry 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 entirely 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 from 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,
00:10:29rotting and bleaching in the sun and waves,
00:10:32and each tide turns them in their beds
00:10:36and tucks fresh sand under them.
00:10:39There is naked nature,
00:10:42inhumanly sincere,
00:10:44wasting no thought on man,
00:10:46nibbling 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.
00:11:28Toward 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,
00:11:57I trust that for a long time
00:11:59he will be disappointed here.
00:12:02A 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.
00:12:12A 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.
00:12:28So Henry's responsibilities
00:12:30for the family economy increased.
00:12:35At 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
00:13:13or 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
00:13:25who are trying to maximize their profits.
00:13:28He knows what he's doing.
00:13:31At the same time,
00:13:32he's proud of his track record.
00:13:34He becomes famous for precision.
00:13:37He scorned society's dependence
00:13:40on new technologies,
00:13:42like the telegraph
00:13:43and the mass printing of newspapers.
00:13:46Yet he enjoyed them himself.
00:13:49He 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
00:14:07in multiple ways,
00:14:09which, sure, may seem contradictory.
00:14:12If there was some tension between the two,
00:14:15and there was,
00:14:16then I think that's human.
00:14:19All of us are bundles of contradictions.
00:14:26On September 18, 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,
00:14:38man, 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,
00:14:49Thomas 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.
00:14:58The authorities of Boston
00:15:02sent back a perfectly innocent man
00:15:05into slavery.
00:15:07I wish my townsmen to consider that
00:15:11whatever the human law may be,
00:15:14a 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
00:15:47was 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
00:15:57is 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.
00:16:36Henry began to work alongside them.
00:16:40He escorted a fugitive
00:16:42named Henry Williams
00:16:43from the Thoreau home
00:16:45to the train station in Concord.
00:16:48But after seeing a policeman,
00:16:50he 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 for the Wild.
00:17:14I wish to speak a word for nature,
00:17:17for absolute freedom and wildness,
00:17:21as 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,
00:17:32rather 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.
00:17:49It'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
00:18:11is 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,
00:18:25regenerative, 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,
00:18:51I 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
00:19:14that has grown over time.
00:19:17It's the idea of wild and wilderness
00:19:19can be loved and protected
00:19:22and cared about.
00:19:23It becomes a part of us.
00:19:32In Walden, Thoreau writes,
00:19:35why do precisely these objects
00:19:37which we behold make a world?
00:19:40And 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
00:20:12of scientists who 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
00:20:30five miles on my way.
00:20:32The walk is so crowded
00:20:34with events and phenomena.
00:20:38How many questions there are
00:20:40which I have not put
00:20:42to the inhabitants?
00:20:44He could sit watching
00:20:46a vernal pool
00:20:47for frogs and tadpoles
00:20:50for hours on end.
00:20:52He was willing to invest
00:20:54his time and attention
00:20:55and the dividends paid out
00:20:57in his prose.
00:20:58And then the next thing you know,
00:21:00he's drawing inductions
00:21:01and 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,
00:21:19he'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
00:21:34to something huge,
00:21:38you know,
00:21:38like his relationship
00:21:40to 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
00:22:20of trees, plants,
00:22:22and flowers
00:22:23in the greater conquered area.
00:22:25More than 800 in all.
00:22:28His attic room
00:22:29became filled with notebooks,
00:22:31journals, books,
00:22:33maps, charts,
00:22:35tables,
00:22:35as 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
00:22:44a scientist
00:22:44because the scientist
00:22:46is someone
00:22:47who looks at the world
00:22:48objectively.
00:22:49For Thoreau,
00:22:51when you're looking
00:22:51at 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
00:23:07of nature,
00:23:09but 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
00:23:22started 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
00:23:30to feel that 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
00:23:42in his journal.
00:23:43Gladly, I would read
00:23:45if he would hear.
00:23:47There is no
00:23:48intellectual communion.
00:23:50Emerson confided
00:23:52in his journal
00:23:53that Henry was always
00:23:54stubborn and 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.
00:24:07I am offended
00:24:09by your pride,
00:24:10your sometime assumption
00:24:11of 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.
00:24:21Thoreau was the
00:24:22prodigal son
00:24:23to Emerson.
00:24:25And Emerson had 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 Emerson
00:24:33hoped he would become
00:24:35because Thoreau was
00:24:37pursuing something else.
00:24:40Thoreau and Emerson
00:24:42were something
00:24:43like father and son,
00:24:45but we see
00:24:46in Thoreau's writings
00:24:47his doubts
00:24:48about whether his
00:24:50relationship with 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.
00:25:04When he fell out
00:25:04with Emerson,
00:25:06he turned to
00:25:07the natural world
00:25:08to reconnect him.
00:25:13At 5 p.m.,
00:25:15September 13th,
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.
00:25:32In 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 Chizunkuk Lake,
00:25:43deep in the
00:25:44Penobscot
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 Penobscot tribal leader
00:26:16named Joseph Attian.
00:26:19Joseph Attian
00:26:21was the son
00:26:22of the chief
00:26:22of the tribe,
00:26:24and Attian
00:26:25was considered
00:26:25the best boatman
00:26:26on the river.
00:26:28At first glance,
00:26:29Henry was disappointed.
00:26:31Thoreau is surprised
00:26:32by how acculturated
00:26:34Attian is
00:26:35to white norms.
00:26:36He wears white clothing,
00:26:37he 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.
00:26:49But as they canoed
00:26:50up the Penobscot River,
00:26:52Henry began
00:26:53to change his mind.
00:26:54He was impressed
00:26:55by Attian'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.
00:27:06Attian 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,
00:27:21and they're slaying
00:27:22these animals,
00:27:23and can't possibly
00:27:25eat that much meat,
00:27:27so they're leaving
00:27:28the carcasses to rot,
00:27:29which 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,
00:27:52Attian invited
00:27:53him and Thatcher
00:27:54to camp with
00:27:55some local Indians.
00:27:58We lay on our backs
00:28:00talking with them
00:28:01till midnight.
00:28:04There can be
00:28:05no more startling evidence
00:28:07of there being
00:28:08a distinct
00:28:09and comparatively
00:28:10aboriginal race
00:28:11than to hear
00:28:13this unaltered
00:28:14Indian language.
00:28:17It took me by surprise.
00:28:19These were the sounds
00:28:21that issued
00:28:21from the wigwams
00:28:23of this country
00:28:23before Columbus
00:28:25was born.
00:28:27They have not yet
00:28:28died 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
00:28:38and are going to live on
00:28:39despite colonization.
00:28:43We've survived
00:28:45by remaining invisible.
00:28:48It's still with us,
00:28:50that feeling.
00:28:52People don't understand.
00:28:54There's things about 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,
00:29:20which 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 convinced
00:29:53to be evicted.
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.
00:30:04His 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 in the afternoon.
00:30:46The lecture podium itself
00:30:48had 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, very hot
00:30:56July 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,
00:31:18to 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 of the innocent,
00:31:32of injustice
00:31:34and not of justice.
00:31:38Nowadays,
00:31:39men wear a fool's cap
00:31:42and call it
00:31:43a liberty cap.
00:31:46I love the way
00:31:48that Thoreau
00:31:49called out
00:31:50everybody.
00:31:51He didn't just call out
00:31:53the Southerners.
00:31:55Um,
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 of justice,
00:32:10and I will fight for them
00:32:11if need be.
00:32:13But show me
00:32:14Massachusetts,
00:32:16and I refuse her
00:32:18my allegiance
00:32:20and express
00:32:21contempt
00:32:22for her courts.
00:32:26He says,
00:32:28laws will not make
00:32:28men 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 toward
00:32:45one of our ponds.
00:32:47But what signifies
00:32:49the beauty of 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 woods
00:33:14or 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
00:33:27in 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
00:33:36better.
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 for 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,
00:34:14he means that.
00:34:17He's saying,
00:34:18I don't know
00:34:18when my time's gonna be up.
00:34:19I'm not gonna 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 to work
00:34:30as a surveyor.
00:34:32He even took
00:34:33two lengthy walking excursions
00:34:35to Cape Cod.
00:34:37In July of 1857,
00:34:40he left on his third
00:34:41and most ambitious trip
00:34:42to 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.
00:34:59But I think
00:35:00there's a very clear sense
00:35:01that he wants to find
00:35:02someone who can
00:35:03bring to life
00:35:04and test
00:35:04what he's been reading
00:35:05about all these years
00:35:06in Indian notebooks.
00:35:08And I think
00:35:08he really wanted
00:35:10to have a more
00:35:11immersive experience
00:35:14and really get to know
00:35:16what it means
00:35:18to be in this nature.
00:35:21They hired Joe Polis,
00:35:24a Penobscot spiritual
00:35:25and 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 gardens.
00:35:37There's some sophistication
00:35:39to Polis.
00:35:41He'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
00:36:23Henry another opportunity
00:36:24to learn about
00:36:26how natives negotiated
00:36:27the Maine wilderness.
00:36:31Thoreau is watching
00:36:32a Penobscot 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.
00:36:53Because without them,
00:36:55we know it would be nothing,
00:36:56right?
00:36:58Thoreau thinks,
00:36:59I can never have
00:37:00that other half
00:37:01of what Polis has,
00:37:03that 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.
00:37:14It'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.
00:37:25The word for
00:37:27a birch bark canoe
00:37:28is agwiden,
00:37:29and 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
00:37:45to understand
00:37:46that indigenous worldview
00:37:48of the nature around him.
00:37:51And what a gift.
00:37:53Thoreau instantly grasps
00:37:55that mainstream American
00:37:56white 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,
00:38:01and language is one of the
00:38:03key entry 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 the most.
00:38:17He sees these men
00:38:19beyond the color
00:38:20of 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 appreciation
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
00:38:57and gather the notes
00:38:58of his own place
00:38:59and to track
00:39:01much more carefully
00:39:02the phenomenon
00:39:03of Conqueror
00:39:04that will become
00:39:04the calendar project.
00:39:06This great final project,
00:39:08which is this grand account
00:39:09of the Conqueror ecosystem.
00:39:13Why should just these sights
00:39:15and sounds
00:39:16accompany our life?
00:39:18I would fain explore
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 trend,
00:39:29that butterflies reappear
00:39:32and when.
00:39:34Know why just 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
00:39:50at 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 of
00:40:06greater and greater
00:40:07fullness of vision
00:40:08to bring many perspectives,
00:40:11many temporal points
00:40:13together
00:40:13into a kind of symphony.
00:40:17Thoreau poured
00:40:18through decades
00:40:19of his seasonal observations
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,
00:40:36but 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 a fact
00:40:55will flower
00:40:56into a truth.
00:40:58In the summer
00:40:59of 1859,
00:41:01Henry also began
00:41:02collecting data
00:41:03about the 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 nature's wildness.
00:41:32He began to 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.
00:41:44ever.
00:41:46He spent 18 months
00:41:47with the River Project,
00:41:49and he was still
00:41:50on it,
00:41:50hardcore,
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.
00:41:59In his essay,
00:42:00Civil Disobedience,
00:42:02Thoreau had asserted
00:42:03that each citizen
00:42:04should resist a government
00:42:05that supported slavery.
00:42:08A militant abolitionist
00:42:10named John Brown
00:42:11had a more aggressive strategy,
00:42:14armed resistance.
00:42:17Back in 1856,
00:42:19after a series of clashes
00:42:21between pro-
00:42:22and anti-slavery militia,
00:42:24Brown had killed
00:42:25five unarmed
00:42:26pro-slavery settlers
00:42:27in Kansas.
00:42:30Brown traveled to 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,
00:42:41Henry met with Brown
00:42:41and 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,
00:42:51John Brown
00:42:51and his men
00:42:52raided the Federal Armory
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.
00:43:06John 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 could also
00:43:14call him a liberator.
00:43:16But it became
00:43:16a 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 disparagingly
00:43:29of Brown
00:43:30because he resorted
00:43:32to violence,
00:43:33resisted the government,
00:43:34threw his life away.
00:43:36What way have they
00:43:38thrown their 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 federal
00:44:25government says,
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 with slavery,
00:44:31we have an obligation
00:44:32to do it.
00:44:35John Brown
00:44:36was hanged
00:44:37on December 2nd.
00:44:39Thoreau 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 about
00:44:59John Brown
00:45:00that so shifts,
00:45:02like it's a seismic shift
00:45:05in Henry David's life?
00:45:07He realized
00:45:09what it takes
00:45:10to achieve change.
00:45:12The issue of 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.
00:45:35Thoreau quickly
00:45:37got a hold
00:45:37of that book
00:45:38and read it
00:45:39voraciously.
00:45:42Darwin's
00:45:43Origin 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
00:46:14by why he would cut down
00:46:16pines and oaks
00:46:17would spring up
00:46:17and why you would
00:46:18cut down oaks
00:46:19and pines would spring up.
00:46:21So he pursues
00:46:22his own
00:46:23idiosyncratic
00:46:23form of science.
00:46:25One day
00:46:26in June of 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
00:46:42said,
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
00:46:49in North America.
00:46:51And it must
00:46:53have astonished Thoreau
00:46:54because he had
00:46:55been working
00:46:56on precisely
00:46:57that scientific
00:46:57question
00:46:58intensively
00:46:59for three
00:47:00or four years.
00:47:03In September,
00:47:05Thoreau delivered
00:47:06a lecture
00:47:06called
00:47:07Succession
00:47:08of Forest Trees
00:47:09in which he
00:47:10answered the question
00:47:11that had puzzled
00:47:12Darwin.
00:47:13The key
00:47:14to the mystery
00:47:14of how different
00:47:15species of trees
00:47:16grew
00:47:17where they hadn't
00:47:18before, Thoreau argued,
00:47:20was seeds.
00:47:23A beautiful
00:47:24thin 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
00:47:34to 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,
00:47:46he 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
00:47:59there
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
00:48:17theory.
00:48:18It turned him
00:48:19into our first
00:48:20pioneering plant
00:48:22ecologist.
00:48:23He literally
00:48:24invented an entire
00:48:26science.
00:48:34August 15th,
00:48:361861.
00:48:38My cold
00:48:39turned to
00:48:40bronchitis,
00:48:41which made me
00:48:43a close
00:48:43prisoner.
00:48:45My ordinary
00:48:46pursuits,
00:48:47both indoor
00:48:48and out,
00:48:49have been
00:48:50for the most
00:48:51part
00:48:51omitted.
00:48:53Indeed,
00:48:54I have been
00:48:54sick so long
00:48:55that I have
00:48:56almost forgotten
00:48:57what it is
00:48:58to be well.
00:49:00In early
00:49:01spring,
00:49:02Henry had
00:49:03begun having
00:49:03more serious
00:49:04symptoms of
00:49:05the illness
00:49:05that had
00:49:06plagued him
00:49:06off and on
00:49:07for most
00:49:08of 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
00:49:29with him.
00:49:30It would be
00:49:32his last
00:49:32trip 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
00:49:41home.
00:49:42He could
00:49:43write only
00:49:44intermittently.
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,
00:49:51they collected,
00:49:53edited,
00:49:53and revised
00:49:54essays that
00:49:55would become
00:49:56the Maine
00:49:57Woods and
00:49:58Cape Cod.
00:49:59And he always
00:50:00was moving
00:50:01toward this
00:50:01kind of greater
00:50:02and greater
00:50:03fullness of
00:50:03vision,
00:50:04but he knows
00:50:05he doesn't
00:50:06have long.
00:50:08He couldn't
00:50:09walk outside
00:50:10anymore,
00:50:11so his own
00:50:12journal becomes
00:50:13his representation
00:50:14of nature that
00:50:15he 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
00:50:26leaves.
00:50:27They that
00:50:28soared so
00:50:29loftily
00:50:30and are laid
00:50:31low,
00:50:32resigned to
00:50:33lie and decay
00:50:34at the foot
00:50:36of the tree
00:50:36and afford
00:50:38nourishment
00:50:39to new
00:50:39generations
00:50:40of their
00:50:41kind,
00:50:42as well as
00:50:43to flutter
00:50:44on high.
00:50:45They teach
00:50:46us how to
00:50:47die.
00:50:50Surrounded
00:50:51by his
00:50:51family,
00:50:53Henry David
00:50:54Thoreau died
00:50:55at nine o'clock
00:50:56in the morning
00:50:56on May 6,
00:50:581862.
00:50:59He was just
00:51:0144 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
00:51:09beautiful has
00:51:10happened.
00:51:11Some say
00:51:12the last words
00:51:13of the naturalist
00:51:14who had so
00:51:15many transcendent
00:51:16experiences
00:51:17were simply
00:51:18moose,
00:51:20Indian.
00:51:22Sophia,
00:51:23who was reading
00:51:24to him about
00:51:25his river trip
00:51:25with John,
00:51:26said that his
00:51:27last words
00:51:28were,
00:51:29now comes
00:51:30good sailing.
00:51:37We found
00:51:38our boat
00:51:38in the dawn
00:51:39just as we
00:51:41had left
00:51:41it,
00:51:42as if
00:51:43waiting for
00:51:43us there
00:51:44on the
00:51:45shore,
00:51:46all cool
00:51:47and dripping
00:51:48with dew.
00:51:51We,
00:51:52too,
00:51:53brothers and
00:51:53natives of
00:51:54Concord,
00:51:55with a vigorous
00:51:56shove,
00:51:57we launched
00:51:58our boat
00:51:58from the
00:51:59bank and
00:52:00dropped silently
00:52:01down the
00:52:02stream.
00:52:04We bated
00:52:05due to
00:52:05familiar
00:52:06outlines
00:52:06and addressed
00:52:08ourselves to
00:52:09new scenes
00:52:10and
00:52:11adventures.
00:52:13Nought was
00:52:14familiar
00:52:14but the
00:52:16heavens.
00:52:23Three days
00:52:24later,
00:52:25after the
00:52:26church bell
00:52:26tolled
00:52:2744 times,
00:52:29Concord
00:52:29gathered for
00:52:30his funeral.
00:52:32School had
00:52:33been dismissed
00:52:34early so that
00:52:35the students,
00:52:36more than
00:52:36300 in all,
00:52:38could attend.
00:52:40Ralph Waldo
00:52:41Emerson
00:52:42delivered the
00:52:43eulogy.
00:52:46He was
00:52:47bred to
00:52:48no profession.
00:52:49He never
00:52:50married.
00:52:51He lived
00:52:52alone.
00:52:53He chose
00:52:54wisely,
00:52:55no doubt for
00:52:56himself,
00:52:57to be the
00:52:57bachelor of
00:52:58thought and
00:52:59nature.
00:53:01Mr. Thoreau
00:53:02dedicated his
00:53:04genius with
00:53:05such entire
00:53:06love to
00:53:07the fields,
00:53:08hills,
00:53:09and waters
00:53:10of his
00:53:11native town.
00:53:12He knew
00:53:13the country
00:53:14like a
00:53:14fox or
00:53:15a bird
00:53:16and passed
00:53:17through it
00:53:18as freely
00:53:19by paths
00:53:20of his own.
00:53:21I cannot
00:53:22help counting
00:53:23it a fault
00:53:24in him
00:53:25that he had
00:53:26no ambition.
00:53:28Wanting this,
00:53:30instead of
00:53:31engineering for
00:53:32all America,
00:53:33he was the
00:53:34captain of a
00:53:36Huckleberry
00:53:36party.
00:53:38But these
00:53:39foibles,
00:53:40real or
00:53:41apparent,
00:53:42were fast
00:53:43vanishing in
00:53:44the incessant
00:53:45growth of a
00:53:45spirit so
00:53:46robust and
00:53:47wise,
00:53:48so noble a
00:53:50soul,
00:53:50that he should
00:53:51depart out of
00:53:52nature before
00:53:54yet he has
00:53:54been really
00:53:55shown to his
00:53:56peers for
00:53:57what he
00:53:58is.
00:54:00But he,
00:54:01at least,
00:54:02is content.
00:54:05The last
00:54:06sentence in
00:54:06Walden is,
00:54:07the sun is
00:54:08but a
00:54:08morning star.
00:54:10What does
00:54:10he mean?
00:54:11It means,
00:54:12you've just
00:54:13begun to
00:54:14think through
00:54:15the meaning
00:54:16and the
00:54:17significance
00:54:18of what I've
00:54:19produced here.
00:54:35as Thoreau
00:54:37said,
00:54:38don't,
00:54:39when you
00:54:39come to
00:54:40die,
00:54:41discover that
00:54:42you have
00:54:42not lived.
00:54:44He died
00:54:45young,
00:54:46but he
00:54:47didn't end
00:54:48his life
00:54:49realizing he
00:54:50had not
00:54:50lived.
00:54:52It happens
00:54:53to millions
00:54:54of people
00:54:54today and
00:54:55then to
00:54:56realize,
00:54:57I just
00:54:58existed,
00:54:58I just
00:54:59lived,
00:54:59I don't
00:55:00know what
00:55:00it meant,
00:55:01I never
00:55:01really figured
00:55:02it out.
00:55:03He was
00:55:04arguing for
00:55:05being aware
00:55:06at all
00:55:07times,
00:55:08to waking
00:55:09up to the
00:55:10facts of
00:55:10your life,
00:55:11to being
00:55:11conscious,
00:55:13being aware,
00:55:14being present.
00:55:19the mass
00:55:19of men
00:55:20lead lives
00:55:21of quiet
00:55:22desperation.
00:55:24They honestly
00:55:25think there
00:55:27is no choice
00:55:28left.
00:55:29Most of the
00:55:30luxuries,
00:55:31and many of
00:55:32the so-called
00:55:32comforts of
00:55:33life,
00:55:34are not only
00:55:35not indispensable,
00:55:37but positive
00:55:38hindrances to
00:55:40the elevation
00:55:41of mankind.
00:55:44We built
00:55:45the world
00:55:45that Thoreau
00:55:46feared,
00:55:47a world
00:55:48that's so
00:55:48noisy and
00:55:49crowded that
00:55:51we don't have
00:55:51any time to
00:55:52think for
00:55:52ourselves
00:55:53anymore.
00:55:54Most people
00:55:55are hostage
00:55:55to their
00:55:56upbringing,
00:55:57their economic
00:55:58status,
00:55:59and they
00:56:01don't get
00:56:01excited about
00:56:02the adventure
00:56:03of being
00:56:03alive.
00:56:05And it's
00:56:05like watching
00:56:06an incredible
00:56:06birthright being
00:56:07extinguished,
00:56:09because we're
00:56:10muddling
00:56:10through life.
00:56:12And that's
00:56:13the death
00:56:13of freedom.
00:56:16Many of the
00:56:17decisions that
00:56:18pertain to our
00:56:19lives have been
00:56:19made by others,
00:56:21been made by
00:56:22circumstances that
00:56:23have been beyond
00:56:23our control.
00:56:24A very human
00:56:26centered view
00:56:27of the world
00:56:27has now raised
00:56:29the temperature
00:56:30to the point
00:56:30where our great
00:56:32forests catch
00:56:33on fire,
00:56:35where already
00:56:36hundreds of
00:56:37millions of
00:56:37people can no
00:56:39longer live in
00:56:40the places where
00:56:41they were born.
00:56:43Thoreau intuits
00:56:44that if we're
00:56:45going to make
00:56:46it, we're
00:56:47going to have
00:56:47to turn to
00:56:48the natural
00:56:48world for
00:56:49help.
00:56:50In wildness
00:56:51is the
00:56:52preservation
00:56:53of the world.
00:56:54It feels
00:56:55as if
00:56:56the whole
00:56:57living world
00:56:58is calling
00:56:59out to us
00:57:00to pay
00:57:00attention.
00:57:02But he says,
00:57:03you know,
00:57:03even in the
00:57:04muck of all
00:57:05this,
00:57:05I encountered
00:57:07a white
00:57:08water lily.
00:57:09And lilies
00:57:10like that
00:57:10grow in slime
00:57:12and grow
00:57:13in spite of it.
00:57:15He was
00:57:17open always
00:57:18to accepting
00:57:20signs from
00:57:21nature
00:57:22that all
00:57:23was not lost.
00:57:24Thoreau was
00:57:25saying,
00:57:25if you're
00:57:26beginning to die
00:57:27within,
00:57:27take measures
00:57:28right now.
00:57:29there must
00:57:30be some
00:57:30cabin in
00:57:31the woods
00:57:31within you.
00:57:32There must
00:57:33be some
00:57:33space where
00:57:34you can
00:57:34regenerate
00:57:35yourself and
00:57:35remember what
00:57:36is most
00:57:36essential to
00:57:37you.
00:57:39I think
00:57:40Thoreau gives
00:57:40us the
00:57:41bridge to
00:57:41do that.
00:57:42If we
00:57:44would just
00:57:45open up
00:57:45our heads
00:57:46and hearts
00:57:47to those
00:57:48lessons,
00:57:49I think it
00:57:50could take us
00:57:50a long way
00:57:51on that
00:57:51path.
00:57:52And here
00:57:53he is,
00:57:55still,
00:57:56offering
00:57:56these messages.
00:57:57It's up
00:57:59to us to
00:57:59open the
00:58:00book and
00:58:00read.
00:58:02There is
00:58:04a season
00:58:04for
00:58:05everything.
00:58:07You must
00:58:08live in
00:58:08the present.
00:58:09Launch
00:58:10yourself on
00:58:11every wave.
00:58:13Find your
00:58:14eternity
00:58:14in each
00:58:16moment.
00:58:17Fools
00:58:18stand on
00:58:20their island
00:58:20of opportunities
00:58:21and look
00:58:22toward another
00:58:23land.
00:58:24There is
00:58:26no other
00:58:29life but
00:58:31this.
00:58:33Henry David
00:58:34Thoreau.
00:58:43can you
00:58:58see.
00:58:59He
00:59:00has
00:59:00been
00:59:02and
00:59:02he
00:59:02has
00:59:03been
00:59:03to
00:59:03fear
00:59:03and
00:59:03he
00:59:03see.
00:59:29Music
00:59:32Scan this QR code with your smart device to watch the whole series
00:59:36and 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.
00:59:52The digital companion soundtrack is also available online.
01:00:10Music
01:01:11Major funding for Henry David Thoreau was provided by the Better Angels Society, Jeff Skoll,
01:01:19the Mansueto Foundation, Tyson Foods, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
01:01:26Funding was also provided by the Tyson Family Foundation, the Neil and Anna Rasmussen Foundation,
01:01:33and by the Better Angels Society members, the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment and Mark A. Tracy.
01:01:41Additional funding was provided by Roxanne Quimby Foundation, Jim and Mona Milan through the HeartSpace Fund, and Elizabeth Kenney.
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