Conquering Sainte Terre in Walking by Henry David Thoreau

In Walking by Henry David Thoreau he starts off “I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.” He continues on how walking isn’t just a workout or voyage to see the landscape but a crusade to conquer Sainte Terre the “Holy Land”, that we “must walk like camels”. When Thoreau sets out on his crusade he continues about how when walking he tries to avoid the main roads, any villages and any populated areas to avoid society because the word village derives from the Latin words for road and for vile. He believed that if you have paid your debts, settled all your affairs and are a free man-then you are ready for a walk.

This article about Walking explains how he thinks that not everyone is suitable for civilization but those who are not suited for civilization are meant for higher purposes. That walking isn’t about working out or seeing the countryside but “walking like a camel.” What he means by this is walking with a conscious mind and contemplating nature around you. He believes that when we walk the wrong the way we tend to leave our heads in the village behind. He doesn’t mean it in a way to walk in nature to be free, but to free your mind when walking in nature to escape the world. He brings his philosophical views and incorporates it into his walking.

Robert Matouzzis analysis of Ralph Waldo Emerson's The American Scholar is about the call for cultural and intellectual independence. He then explains the main influences on what he calls Man Thinking: nature, history, and life as action. “Men have become the tool of their tools”. He treats na...

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... as a discussion of thought to explain how the nature and soul, and matter and mind, is a link as the basis for his theory of language, and that language is the vivid images we seek most. That nature in fact does not exist. “Emerson therefore exhorts one to achieve unity with nature, to trust in oneself, and eventually to create one’s own world.”(Yang)

In Vincent Yangs article “Nature” he goes into depth about Emerson’s thoughts and beliefs. When reading the article it gave me a better outlook on Emerson and his thoughts about nature. Yang continues to show how Emerson had a philosophical view and that what we all thought was nature isn’t really so. I agree with Yang in the sense that Emerson explores idealism to the fullest. He talks about how we don’t know our own true meaning and the only way to find the answers is though nature and what it has to offer.