Spring, Conclusion – HDT

Looking at pictures of the pond...

Bigger than I thought it would be
Still maintains most of the integrity that it held when HDT lived there
The water looks quite nice
People come to the pond from all over to escape the city life.....

Trains coming through on the train, even seeing the pond for a second or two must enhance their day somehow.

HDT's little cabin replica is quite small..... has a little chimney on it, and the nice woodshed from left over materials..... three chairs, little stove, desk, and bed.

Shop at Walden Pond.... the true HDT fans probably think it's downright despicable.... must be why Ben says he's never been in....must not agree to the fact that there is a shop at the pond

Ben didn't want to go ruin his thought of the pond, and yet when he did he didn't find it as too much of a ruining thing.

The development of the pond could have been a lot worse... it's a compromise that the little bit of it has been developed, but kept as low as possible....

“I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there.”

Thoreau may have been in the audience of the Emerson speech at Harvard while he was giving it. That is something we must keep in mind while we read the novel.

It seems to me that Thoreau is telling us to reach high for our goals, “build a castle in the sky”, but to ensure that it does not come crashing down around us, make sure we build a foundation around these high reaching goals by putting a foot back into the conformity for a while.

You can not move forth from the medium until you have shown that you are its master. It's the same in life as it is in art. Nature mirrors the mind.