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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com-Walden by Henry David Thoreau


another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different
persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very
careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father’s or
his mother’s or his neighbor’s instead. The youth may build or plant
or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells
me he would like to do. It is by a mathematical point only that we
are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his
eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive
at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true
course.

Undoubtedly, in this case, what is true for one is truer still for a
thousand, as a large house is not proportionally more expensive than
a small one, since one roof may cover, one cellar underlie, and one
wall separate several apartments. But for my part, I preferred the
solitary dwelling. Moreover, it will commonly be cheaper to build
the whole yourself than to convince another of the advantage of the
common wall; and when you have done this, the common partition,
to be much cheaper, must be a thin one, and that other may prove a
bad neighbor, and also not keep his side in repair. The only
cooperation which is commonly possible is exceedingly partial and
superficial; and what little true cooperation there is, is as if it were
not, being a harmony inaudible to men. If a man has faith, he will
cooperate with equal faith everywhere; if he has not faith, he will
continue to live like the rest of the world, whatever company he is
joined to. To cooperate in the highest as well as the lowest sense,
means to get our living together. I heard it proposed lately that two
young men should travel together over the world, the one without
money, earning his means as he went, before the mast and behind the
plow, the other carrying a bill of exchange in his pocket. It was easy
to see that they could not long be companions or cooperate, since
one would not operate at all. They would part at the first interesting
crisis in their adventures. Above all, as I have implied, the man who
goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait
till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.

But all this is very selfish, I have heard some of my townsmen say. I
confess that I have hither-to indulged very little in philanthropic
enterprises. I have made some sacrifices to a sense of duty, and
among others have sacrificed this pleasure

also. There are those who have used all their arts to persuade me to
undertake the support of some poor family in the town; and if I had
nothing to do-for the devil finds employment for the idle-I might try
my hand at some such pastime as that. However, when I have
thought to indulge myself in this respect, and lay their Heaven under
an obligation by maintaining certain poor persons in all respects as
comfortably as I maintain myself, and have even ventured so far as
to make them the offer, they have one and all unhesitatingly
preferred to remain poor. While my townsmen and women are
devoted in so many ways to the good of their fellows, I trust that one
at least may be spared to other and less humane pursuits. You must
have a genius for charity as well as for anything else. As for Doing-
good, that is one of the professions which are full. Moreover, I have
tried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does
not agree with my constitution. Probably I should not consciously
and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which
society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation; and I
believe that a like but infinitely greater steadfastness elsewhere is all
that now preserves it. But I would not stand between any man and
his genius; and to him who does this work, which I decline, with his
whole heart and soul and life, I would say, Persevere, even if the
world call it doing evil, as it is most likely they will.

I am far from supposing that my case is a peculiar one; no doubt
many of my readers would make a similar defence. At doing
something-I will not engage that my neighbors shall pronounce it
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PinkMonkey.com Digital Library - PinkMonkey.com-Walden by Henry David Thoreau



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