Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

IV
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS
Thoreau's thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, even in
a bad woodcut, conveys some hint of the limitations
of his mind and character. With his almost acid
sharpness of insight, with his almost animal dex-
terity in act, there went none of that large, uncon-
scious geniality of the world's heroes. He was not
easy, not ample, not urbane, not even kind ; his
enjoyment was hardly smiling, or the smile was
not broad enough to be convincing; he had no
waste lands nor kitchen-midden in his nature, but
was all improved and sharpened to a point. * He
was bred to no profession,' says Emerson ; ' he never
married ; he lived alone ; he never went to church ;
he never voted ; he refused to pay a tax to the
State ; he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never
knew the use of tobacco ; and, though a naturalist,
he used neither trap nor gun. When asked at
dinner what dish he preferred, he answered, "the
nearest."' So many negative superiorities begin to
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