Duality of Man and of Nature
Thoreau's appeal to the readers of Walden to spiritualize is predicated on the recognition of two sides of human nature — the animal and the spiritual — and upon his conviction that man must acknowledge and in some way reconcile these opposing tendencies. In "Economy," he discusses the physical necessities of life — food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. Until these needs are met, a person cannot rise above them. After he has taken care of the essentials, however, "there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his vacation from humbler toil having commenced," and ultimately to turn his thoughts "into the heavens above."
All men have both animal instincts and higher capacities. Thoreau underscores this coexistence of animal and higher qualities in "Solitude," in which he describes man as simultaneously a physical entity and as an intellectual spectator within his own body. Some men show intelligence, perception, and a relation to nature. A few actually embark upon the spiritual quest. Those who are comfortable in nature — even if they do not actively seek to understand natural laws — and who are willing to think for themselves may progress from living in reality to a more spiritual life.
Thoreau is fascinated by simple men who live close to nature, and particularly by the French Canadian woodchopper (Alek Therien, unnamed in Walden). He describes the woodchopper in "Visitors" as a true "Homeric or Paphlagonian man," who appreciates epic poetry in his own way. He is both stout and a "great consumer of meat." He is deliberate and unhurried in his actions, good at his work, quiet, solitary, and happy. Thoreau writes, "In him the animal man chiefly was developed. . . . But the intellectual and what is called spiritual man in him were slumbering as in an infant." He is humble, reverent, respectful of his betters, and accepts life as it is. Thoreau detects in him a "man whom I had not seen before, and I did not know whether he was as wise as Shakespeare or as simply ignorant as a child." He approaches things with practical intelligence, displays an almost philosophical outlook, has a certain "positive originality," and is capable of "thinking for himself and expressing his own opinion." But Thoreau cannot move the woodcutter to "take the spiritual view of things." Thoreau suspects that there are unexplored depths of intellect and spirituality within this man:
He suggested that there might be men of genius in the lowest grades of life, however humble and illiterate, who take their own view always, or do not pretend to see at all; who are as bottomless even as Walden Pond was thought to be, though they may be dark and muddy.
