![]() Thoreau did have another reason for not enjoying the company of women: he found them empty-headed and thus uninteresting. His lack of an outspoken sexual interest in young women was due to his rejection of his sexual impulses and not because he was sexually attracted to men. Thoreau's views are just the opposite of the sexually hedonistic attitudes (both homosexual and heterosexual) which are prevalent today. His male friends were all married.įrankly, I think the argument that he was a homosexual is based on a serious misunderstanding of the non-sexual nature of Thoreau's life. Finally, there is no evidence that I have seen that he ever became romantically involved with any man. They are so light and flighty that you can never be sure whether they are there or not there." In opposition, it must also be pointed out that he once asked Ellen Sewell to marry him, that he exchanged poetry with a second woman, and that he became infatuated with a third woman (already married). The society of young women is the most unprofitable I have ever tried. For instance, he said in his journal on November 14, 1851, "I confess that I am lacking a sense, perchance, in this respect, and I derive no pleasure from talking with a young woman half an hour simply because she has regular features. What evidence is there for and against this notion? In support, it can be pointed out that he never married and frequently commented that he didn't like women. One claim that some have made about Thoreau is that he was a homosexual. I do not so much wish that those parts had not been written, as that men and women were so pure that they could read them without harm, that is, without understanding them." I would preserve purity in act and thought, as I would cherish the memory of my mother." One of his comments on Whitman's Leaves of Grass was "As for its sensuality. The subject of sex is one on which I do not wish to meet a man at all unless I can meet him on the most inspiring ground. Thus Thoreau says in his journal for April 12, 1852, "Whatever may befall me, I trust that I may never lose my respect for purity in others. Any time any sexual thought would enter his head, he would try to remove it. Thoreau struggles for a more balanced view, but he is not very successful. Rather than seeing the sexual instincts of a person as a normal, healthy, and biologically necessary part of human nature, Thoreau's society saw them as examples of depravity and vice. Thoreau lived in a time between the Puritans and the Victorians, and although he was quite independent in much of his thinking, he was still very conventional in his moral attitudes towards bodily functions, especially sexual functions. Thoreau is so circumspect towards the end of "Higher Laws" that his point may be elusive, but the purpose of the chapter is an argument for purity. And this chapter also helps us understand Thoreau's motivations better. In fact, this chapter helped influence me to quit eating mammals. Salt introduced Gandhi to Thoreau while Gandhi was struggling to avoid eating meat. Still, his discussion of hunting and the killing of animals for food, while not a strong and focused argument, has been influential. Finally, a number of the statements in this chapter ring false to me. His discussion of other kinds of purity is much too vague and traditional. When discussing the killing of animals, his argument wanders around and lacks a definite conclusion. Second, Thoreau is not very clear in this chapter. ![]() Thoreau, in other parts of Walden and in "Civil Disobedience", does demonstrate these true higher laws (for instance, "If I have unjustly wrestled a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him, though I drown myself") but he does not mention them here. ![]() While being pure and temperate has some value, the true higher laws inspire us to sacrifice our immediate, personal well-being for higher principles, as we find in Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You. "Higher Laws" deals with the animal versus the spiritual nature of man and argues for remaining pure and temperate. ![]() First, Thoreau does not discuss here what I consider to be the true higher laws. In my view, "Higher Laws" is a disappointing chapter. Higher Laws - from Walden by Henry Thoreau, with Notes and Analysis Higher Laws ![]()
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