“A man’s ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but
beautiful – while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless,
besides being ugly.”
After ‘sauntering’ through this short excerpt, I decided to
break it down into two chunks in effort to better comprehend its complexity. Thoreau primarily states that ignorance is
useful and beautiful. Ignorance, by
definition, is a lack of knowledge or information.
He then expresses that knowledge, on the contrary, is useless and
ugly.
Thoreau finds the two qualities of ignorance – usefulness
and beauty – in Nature. Nature is useful in that it facilitates the very
act of sauntering Thoreau craves on a daily basis. Nature is beautiful
in that, in its simplest form, it rests untouched by man and westward
expansion. The Nature that Thoreau holds
so sacred is ignorant where civilization ceases to exist. There is no human knowledge or information,
no industrialization, no ugliness, and no trace of mankind in this special form
of Nature.
Furthermore, Thoreau possesses a distinct kinship with
Nature; he finds solace in “the ocean, the desert, [and] the wilderness,” values
the sacredness of swamps, and cherishes Nature’s “subtle magnetism.” He derives “leisure, freedom, and
independence” from his numerous walks in Nature’s arena. The underlying connection Thoreau possesses
with Nature, or, symbolically speaking, with Ignorance, is one of “perfect
happiness and great joy,” one of sheer bliss.
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