Three Roads Back by Robert D. Richardson

Author:Robert D. Richardson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2022-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

Friendship itself is now a process of nature, and that last sentence shows that Thoreau’s sense of humor has returned. But he is far from finished with the topic. Later in the same journal entry we find him insisting, “We do not wish friends to feed and clothe our bodies—neighbors are kind enough for that—but to do the like offices to ourselves.” He has been writing about the importance of telling a friend just where you found a fact that makes a difference. “We wish to spread and publish ourselves—as the sun spreads its rays,” he continues, “and we toss the new thought to the friend and thus it is dispersed. Friends are those twain who feel their interests to be one—Each knows that the other might as well have said what he said. All beauty—all music—all delight springs from apparent dualism—but real unity.”

Rereading this, Thoreau added, in pencil, “My friend is my real brother.” The paragraph then ends, “I see his nature groping yonder so like mine—Does there go one whom I know then I go there.”17

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