Back To Nature

H.D. Thoreau was the famous American transcendentalist, philosopher and writer in the 19th century. Among his bulk of writings, "Walden Pond", his masterpiece, is regarded the most-reader non-novel writing in the 19th century. It has been translated in almost each major language and widely enjoyed throughout the world.No one went deep in the Nature to such an extent as Thoreau did. He was a dedicated, self-taught naturalist, who disciplined himself to observe the natural phenomena around Concord systematically, he fast-snapped the picturesque scenes and their each subtle fluctuation in Nature, and recorded them almost daily in the journal.Nature in Thoreau's eyes turned out rather comprehensive, she was exquisite, capricious, turbulent that full of mysteries and marvels. Man, animal and Nature co-exist equally and harmoniously. Man was not merely a wanderer in Nature but one of her inseparable part.Thoreau's natural writings, in fact, are his respectable life-long explorations both inward and outward to Nature. He had a great sensitivity to the eternal truth and beauty realm that stood behind the apparent reality of the material world. He believed that seeking out natural facts and observing them carefully could yield important symbolic insights.Walden Pond, for example, is his ideal symbol of the perfect unity of a pure and noble Nature, thus the pond itself becomes his holy land in mind and the spiritual home for all lost men.Thoreau extremely despised wealth and material civilization and severely condemned human's industrial development and the radical wealth worship and hunting in his time and society, which eroded men's mind and caused their fall in morality.What mattered to Thoreau was not luxuries and comforts seeking but a simple and noble life. He believed that nothing but only freedom could bring man the richest life "with the license of a higher order of beings". He advocated man to live a principledlife, to get a living not merely holiest and honorable, but altogether inviting and glorious.Reading Thoreau is a wonderful aesthetic experience, an oblivion to the ill modern civilization and a tour of one's soul. Through his arresting words one could feel the true nature in him and return to where he's first come. By means of returning back to Nature, man can find his home, his placebo, and could clarify himself thus reach a moral rise.