Thoreau writes disparagingly of organized reform in Walden, particularly at the end of "Economy": "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life. . . ." The reform of society rests within the individual. Each man is a microcosm. If he works at improving himself, he reforms the world more effectively than can any philanthropic scheme or organization. Thoreau perceives in the externally-directed reformer "not his sympathy with his fellows in distress, but . . . his private ail." He adds, "Let this be righted, let the spring come to him, the morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his generous companions without apology." The man who minds his own business — tends to his own spiritual health — is the true reformer of society. The individual alone is capable of meaningful, far-reaching change.
Thoreau emphasizes the individual's need to maintain independence. Independence of thought requires self-reliance and some degree of separation from others. Significantly, he moves into his house at Walden Pond on July 4, 1845 — more than a literal Independence Day. His chimney, symbol of the narrator himself in "House-Warming," is described as an independent structure. As he points out in "Solitude," a man thinking and a man working are always alone. Thoreau distinguishes between solitude and loneliness. In solitude, there is a sufficiency of companionship in self and nature, and the possibility of spiritual understanding. Loneliness is not a consideration. Men should stay away from the busy places where crowds congregate, and seek instead "the perennial source of life." Meaningful interaction with others — when companions begin "to utter big thoughts in big words," as he writes in "Visitors" — must allow both distance and silence, which impart perspective. Physical and intellectual independence from narrowing influences protect the individual's ability to make the spiritual journey.
