This little gem is only 122 pages, but there's much food for thought. Only two essays but by the finest of men. With a nice introduction by John Elder - and filled with beautiful wood engravings.

I read it primarily for the “Walking” essay by Thoreau - but I found Emersons essay on Nature the perfect way to lead me into Walking.

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, - who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering.

What Thoreau is talking about is the noble art of Walking - he fancies himself a knight of a new order - the Walkers

It comes only by the grace of God. It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker. You must be born into the family of the Walkers.

What he talks most about is "a quality of awareness, an openess to the light, to the seasons and to natures perpetual renewal” - to quote the introduction.

I like Thoreau - his wit - his spirit of adventure, his refusal to conform to the latest trend and fashion. And that he was a knight of a new order.

We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return - prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are readty to leave your father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again, - if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a fee man, then you are ready for a walk. ( )