Revisions to Henry David Thoreau's manuscript of Walden

Key

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Editors

Transcriptions from HM 924, the manuscript of Walden:

Image Number 890

Image Number 1248

The first sentence of what would become paragraph 5 of the "Conclusion" to Walden makes its initial appearance in Draft E. Thoreau makes additional changes to the sentence in F. In the excerpts below from the manuscript pages where the sentence appears, we see Thoreau inserting and deleting various adjectives, adverbs, and phrases that qualify his assertions about what he learned from his experience at the pond. Some of his changes also seem intended to tighten up the wording and increase the impact of what he has to say. In E, many of Thoreau's revisions are in pencil. In F they are almost all in ink.

A region of the Walden manuscript page above

I learned this at least by my

experiment in the woods,

of more value perhaps

than all the rest; that

if one advances a little confidently

but without wilfulness merely though only in

the direction merely of his dreams,

and endeavors to live the life which he

has imagined, he will meet

with a success wholly quite un-

expected in common hours, and

the result will in a measure miraculously answer to his faith.

At the top of this page from E, Thoreau has made many changes in pencil. What did he learn? "I learned this by my experiment" becomes "I learned this at least by my experiment." Implication: he learned many things but wants to single out this one thing in conclusion. The qualifying words "endeavors to," "quite," "wholly," and "in a measure" seem to make his claim about finding success by advancing "confidently" a little more–to pick up on his own word—measured.

A region of the Walden manuscript page above

I learned this, at least, by

my experiment; that if one ad-

vances [Note: Illegible text rubbed out above line] confidently, but with-

out wilfulness, though only [Note: Illegibile text beneath "only"]

in the direction of his dreams,

and [Note: "and" deleted in pencil and ink] endeavors to live the life

which he has imagined, he

will meet with a success

quite unexpected in common

hours, and, the result will

in a measure, miraculously

answer to his faith.

After re-copying the sentence in F, Thoreau continues to revise, this time almost entirely in ink. (The word "and" is deleted in pencil as well as ink, and what appears to have been a pencilled insertion between "advances" and "confidently" has been rubbed out.) Noe that the final words of the sentence have been deleted, with their reference to a "result" answering to "faith," the sentence puts more emphasis on "success." (The emphasis is enhanced, too, by Thoreau's decision to strike "quite unexpected.") However, Thoreau retains "endeavors to," which he first inserted in E. While the sentence gets a little bolder in F, then, it retains the idea that endeavoring to life your imagined life is the important thing. Striving itself might be regarded as a kind of success.