Walking

I love spending my time in the outdoors so I can relate with the authors points and experiences. I agree with Thoreau's idea of wilderness being the preservation of the world. Given the choice between wilderness and the most beautiful garden I too would choose the wilderness. Thoreau shows that as beings we are fascinated with the wilderness. "... Wilderness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of the Wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plough and sail for it. From the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind." (P.73) The very things that build our world all come from the wilderness, and those things are only discovered by someone who broke from the pack and adventured out. 

The wild that the author talks about leaves a footprint on ones very being, it creates a superior man. "The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source." "Give me a wilderness whose glance no civilization can endure,..." (P.73)The wilderness he speaks of here is one superior to all of us, no civilization can even endure its mere glance. The unknown parts of wilderness challenge and harden man making this superior being.  

"In the very aspect of those primitive and rugged trees, the was, methinks, a tanning principle which hardened and consolidated the fibres of men's thoughts. Ah! already I shudder for these comparatively degenerate days of my native village, when you cannot collect a load of bark of good thickness,-and we no longer produce tar and turpentine."(P.74) Though this was written in 1862 Thoreau foreshadows the loss of wilderness that we often witness today especially in this area where the land is being developed so fast. The thickness of bark he speaks of is a metaphor for the measure of a man. With only thin bark left, how can a man learn from and grow with the wilderness?