Henry David Thoreau is famous as one of the greatest living American
             Transcendentalist authors of the 19th century. Unlike Ralph Waldo Emerson,
             Thoreau is famous for putting Emerson's Transcendentalist principles of
             self-reliance into action. Self-reliance and an immediate, human
             experience of nature and the natural world as spiritually beneficial were
             some of the core ideals of both the movement and of Thoreau's own personal
             One of the reasons Thoreau embarked upon his famous experiment of
             living in the woods, was to prove to himself that even in an increasingly
             complex industrial society such as the newly formed rail-road crossed, post-
             industrialized America, one was still able to live with one's hands.
             Thoreau advocated a simpler life, boiled down to life's most basic
             necessities and based upon the rhythms of daily life rather than the
             rhythms of commerce. Rather than mediating one's spirituality through a
             church, Transcendentalists believed that nature was the best teacher of God
             and the greater, spiritual and inner life of human kind. Thus, by living
             in and appreciating nature, away from the hustle and bustle of the city,
             Thoreau hoped to achieve a better connection with his own spirituality and
             As so much of the basis of Thoreau's life and writings came from the
             sense of self-reliance he gained in nature, the importance of a healthy
             relationship with the natural environment is also critical to Thoreau's
             writings. Unlike many of his Transcendentalist colleagues, Thoreau did not
             believe in gazing at nature with a hazy, sentimental eye of mere
             appreciation. Rather, he believed in acknowledging nature's power, beauty,
             and also occasionally terrible and cruel behavior with respect. Thoreau
             believed that nature was not something to be preserved to help farmers and
             those whose lives depended upon it. Rather, nature was something that must
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