There was no reason why the merchants, lawyers, and church-goers of Concord — those who formed the fabric of society — should sympathize with Thoreau's outlook. Not only did he dismiss their values, but he wrote about it, too. Moreover, Thoreau made no attempt to conciliate those who felt threatened by his disregard of community concerns. When, in 1844, Thoreau and Edward Hoar unintentionally set fire to the woods in Concord, the disapproval of men who regretted the loss of property in the form of standing and cut wood was aggravated by Thoreau's lack of repentance. "I have had nothing to say to any of them," he wrote in his journal.
And yet, Thoreau was pragmatic as well as idealistic. His useful skills appealed to practical men. Emerson commented in his eulogy:
He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains . . . which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his own farm; so that he began to feel a little as if Mr. Thoreau had better rights in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character which addressed all men with a native authority.
Emerson probably overstated the case in asserting the farmers' willingness to admit Thoreau's superior rights to their land. Nevertheless, through his residence in Concord from birth, his usefulness in his father's pencil business, and his range of skills as a handyman as well as a surveyor, Thoreau held a place in the community. And although he shunned superficial social connections (he referred to a party that he had attended as "a bad place to go"), he relished sympathetic companionship. He wrote in his journal entry for November 14, 1851, for example:
…old Mr. Joseph Hosmer and I ate our luncheon of cracker and cheese together in the woods. I heard all he said, though it was not much, to be sure, and he could hear me. And then he talked out of such a glorious repose, taking a leisurely bite at the cracker and cheese between his words; and so some of him was communicated to me, and some of me to him…
Thoreau clearly shared the common human craving for understanding.
