Two Falls out of Three

Thoreau and I are still working on our relationship. I am refusing to regard him as a mentor and guide and he keeps coming up with opinionated gems like, "I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked . . . we need never read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?"

No wonder he lives alone in the woods -- his utter disrespect for just about anything that people do, either because they like their occupations or because they need to make money, probably makes him unwelcome almost everywhere. Plus, he's not at all shy about hating the Irish, who were the most recent wave of European immigrants to reach the U.S. Thoreau was anti-slavery, but not at all pro-people unless they were either intellectuals (in his opinion), or he could somehow exploit them.

On the other hand, he does like reading. Whatever you do, though, don't offer him a book in English. The classics, read in the original Latin or Greek, are the only books for him. Thoreau points out that, at least while he was alive, none of the great thinkers, like Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and so on, were translated into English. Good for him -- I'm glad the little snob can read the great works, and I'm glad that we can now read them in English, or just about any other language. The translations would no doubt infuriate him.

And I'm really glad that I can go out to lunch without Thoreau. I may learn to love him, but right now he's such a pain!