, a passionate
abandonment, pointing to a temperament far removed from Thoreau's.

Prodigal in his charities, riotous in his very austerities, his
tenderness towards the animals seems like the overflowing of a finely
sensitive and artistic nature. With Thoreau one feels in the presence of
a more tranquil, more self-contained spirit; his affection is the
affection of a kindly scientist who is intensely interested in the ways
and habits of birds, beasts, and fishes; one who does not give them the
surplus of the love he bears towards his fellow-men so much as a care and
love which he does not extend so freely towards his fellows. I do not
mean that he was apathetic, especially when his fellow-creatures were in
trouble; his eloquent defence of John Brown, his kindliness towards
simple folk, are sufficient testimony on this score. But on the whole
his interest in men and women was an abstract kind of interest; he showed
none of the personal curiosity and eager inquisitiveness about them that
he showed towards the denizens of the woods and streams. And if you are
not heartily interested in your fellow-men you will not love them very
deeply.

I am not sure that Hawthorne was so far out in his characterization
"Donatello"--the creature half-animal, half-man, which he says was
suggested by Thoreau. It does not pretend to realize all his
characteristics, nor do justice to his fine qualities. None the less in
its picture of a man with a flavour of the wild and untameable about
him--whose uncivilized nature brings him into a close and vital intimacy
with the animal world, we detect a real psychological affinity with
Thoreau. May not Thoreau's energetic rebukes of the evils of
civilization have received an added zest from his instinctive repugnance
to many of the civilized amenities valued by the majority?

Many of Thoreau's admirers--including Mr. Page and Mr. Salt--defend him
stoutly against the charge of unsociability, and they see in this feeling
for the brute creation an illustration of his warm humanitarianism.
"Thoreau loves the animals," says Mr. Page, "because they are manlike and
seem to yearn toward human forms." It seems to me that Thoreau's
affection was a much simpler affair than this. He was drawn towards them
because _he_ felt an affinity with them--an affinity more compelling in
its attraction than the affinity of the average human person.

No doubt he felt, as Shelley did when he spoke of "birds and eve