Walden Chapter 6 Notes - Visitors

Walden Chapter 6 Notes - Visitors

1. The author is no alone person, but will leave a gathering if business calls him.

   • Author had only 3 chairs in his house, but has had upwards of 30 guests
   • It's difficult to say a speech in a such a small house with so little people because you can barely get your thoughts out.
   • Author would usually give bread to the visitors.
   • Author had more visitors while living in the woods than at any other period of his life.
   • Half-witten men from the almshouse and elsewhere came to see the author, usually on the first of April.
     • He once met a man who said that he was "deficient in intellect."
     • The author had guests from those not reckoned commonly among the town's poor. but who should be
       • Objects of charity are not guests
       • To some ppl the village was a community, a league for mutual defense

2. Author made friends with a lumberjack that frequented the area around Walden pond.

   • The man was pure and goodhearted.
     • If the author suggested any improvement in his mode life, the friend merely answered, without expressing any regret, that it was too late.
     • He always expressed his own opinion, and that really shocked the author.
   • Wrote books about the topic the author is writing about
   • The friend could defend many institutions better than any philosopher, because, in describing them as concerned him, he gave the true reason for their prevalence, and speculation had not suggested to him any other.

3. The amount of it is, if a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with.

   • A man sits as many risks as he runs
   • The author occasionally had more cheering visitors than the last, such as children, fishermen, and hunters.