“As I walked in the woods I see the birds and squirrels; so as I walked in the village to see the men and boys; instead of the wind among the pines I hear carts rattle. In one direction from my house there was a colony of muskrats in the river meadows; under the grove of the elms and buttonwoods in the other horizon was a village of busy men, as curious to me as if they had been prairie dogs, each sitting at the mouth of its burrow, or running over to a neighbor’s to gossip. I went frequently to observe their habits” (Thoreau 182).

I really enjoyed how Thoreau made this extension from natural society to the society of man. It was interesting to see him place the two side by side and to witness his fascination with the ways of man. I would really like to discuss this passage and how people felt about the of nature to of man back and forth.

“As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in primeval years lived under these heavens, and their small implements of war and hunting were brought to the light of this modern day. They lay mingled with other natural stones, some of which bore the marks of having been burned by Indian fires, and some by the sun, and also bits of pottery glass brought hither by the recent cultivators of the soil” (Thoreau 172).

We have discussed the connectivity to history through water, so I found this passage to be fascinating as it appears to assign a similar relationship to soil. These do not appear to be the typical thoughts of one working a field, but his approach to perform the once sacred husbandry affords him this example of deeper thought/reflection as well as some more spiritual thinking. While soil changes throughout time, it has the ability to contain relics from throughout history and a presence of deep history connecting soil and time.

“We reproduce the dualism that sets humanity and nature at opposite poles. We thereby leave ourselves little hope of discovering what an ethical, sustainable, honorable human place in nature might actually look like” (Cronon 7).

Cronon feels the duality we have established between humanity and nature is the root of some of the problems we find between ourselves and nature. How do we feel about this duality and how it may impair our relationship with nature?