"
When he had enough of that kind of life, he showed the same
simplicity in giving it up as in beginning it. There are
some who could have done the one, but, vanity forbidding, not
the other; and that is perhaps the story of the hermits; but
Thoreau made no fetish of his own example, and did what he
wanted squarely. And five years is long enough for an
experiment and to prove the success of transcendental
Yankeeism. It is not his frugality which is worthy of note;
for, to begin with, that was inborn, and therefore inimitable
by others who are differently constituted; and again, it was
no new thing, but has often been equalled by poor Scotch
students at the universities. The point is the sanity of his
view of life, and the insight with which he recognised the
position of money, and thought out for himself the problem of
riches and a livelihood. Apart from his eccentricities, he
had perceived, and was acting on, a truth of universal
application. For money enters in two different characters
into the scheme of life. A certain amount, varying with the
number and empire of our desires, is a true necessary to each
one of us in the present order of society; but beyond that
amount, money is a commodity to be bought or not to be
bought, a luxury in which we may either indulge or stint
ourselves, like any other.
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