"Higher Laws"

Walden
Henry David Thoreau

Though Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are often aligned with each other as being proponents of the Transcendentalist movement, Thoreau’s chapter, “Higher Laws” in Walden expresses ideas both familiar and unfamiliar with Emerson’s writings. Thoreau writes, “I found in myself, and still find, an instinct towards a higher, or as it is named, a spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both.” (197) Thoreau’s idea of the “savage” and “animal” side of man contrasts significantly with Emerson’s notion of the eternal good as revealed to one when in Nature. In “Higher Laws” Thoreau expresses an internal conflict between the Emersonian idea of recognizing the “good” in the present moment and the struggle to repress his animal-like tendencies. In discussing this “wild” side of himself, he writes, “We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled…Nature is hard to overcome but she must be overcome.” (205, 207)

Thoreau’s need of overcoming the savage side of human nature is due to his belief that there is an ongoing, Universal message to be heard, but can only be recognized if we “listen” intently. “Though the youth at last grows indifferent, the laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive. Listen to every zephyr for some reproof, for it is surely there, and he is unfortunate who does not hear it.” (205) This passage of a close communion with the gentle breezes of nature echoes Emerson’s ideas from his essay, “Nature”, where he chronicles the transcendentalist belief of the interconnectedness between man, spirituality and Nature.