Time and Nature

Thoreau, throughout Walden-but especially in Solitude-explores how Nature and Space are the infinite friends that nobody knows they needed. When people ask him if he is lonely, he responds by saying that we are only one point in an infinite space so “why should I be lonely” (93). He believes that what we truly wish to be near to is “the perennial source of our life” which I take to mean thought and Nature. He seems to imply that Nature is as Time and Space are: infinite and infinitely interesting. “No exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another” (93). To ponder, and especially to ponder Nature, is what brings life to you. Being near to Nature and away from society is where you can truly find your thoughts, and living simply takes away fear-especially fear in the forms of “gossip” (news) and theft. To be in Nature and to be a part of Nature is to be fearless, to be connected to all parts of the world. “It is as much Asia or Africa as New England” (91). In living in Nature, he has lost his fear of the dark that he believes most men have. He talks of how his body, the most Natural part of him, can find its way back to his home without the help of the mind who grows stronger in Nature and through reading and wondering. He also points out that “there can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of Nature” (91) essentially suggesting that, along with fear, oftentimes any type of sadness or depression will also dissipate in living in harmony with Nature. But then he goes on to suggest that no one can truly be “wholly involved with Nature” (94). While meaning more that he can have no influence on Nature herself, he also insinuates that no one can be truly free of fear and sadness. 

In Solitude, he also explores society in general. He says, “Society is commonly too cheap” and that we “stumble over one another” (95). He says that the value of a man is not in his skin but that we can touch him (95), meaning that only when we are able to connect with each other do we gain any sort of value. This then takes away from his argument for living away from society and in Nature. He continues on to say that through the power of the mind, we are never truly alone, which again subtracts from an argument, this time being his argument to connect with others. He then goes back to his argument for living with Nature, saying that the animals and sounds of Nature keep him great company. He then goes on seemingly to compare Time to an “old settler and original proprietor” and to compare Nature to an “elderly dame” in his neighborhood (96). And yet immediately after Solitude, he goes on to say that he loves society as much as the next guy in Visitors (97).