Hello, I recently read your theory on natural selection and the Origin of Species.
Although each of us approaches life differently, for example, your ambition being on a different level than mine and your formal learning more than I feel is needed, I admire how much you have learned from nature. I say that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Although you weren’t a prominent scientist, you took on the challenge of learning from nature, that which others have not. You didn’t go on a scientific expedition or live like all the other scientists, instead, you boarded the boat, H. M.
S. Beagle and brought with you only the necessities. You learned more as an individual on that trip than most scientists do with all their intricate tools. I, like you, gave up luxuries at a point in my life in order to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach. When I came to die, I did not want to discover that I had not lived. Following the advice of my friend Emerson, I went out and experienced nature as a transparent eyeball, observing as much as I could.
I noticed the Pickerel under the ice in the pond. I never pondered the possibility of different kinds of Pickerel originating from the same species. When you observed nature in the Galapagos Islands, you saw all the different types of plants and animals and postulated that some of the different species of each came from a single ancestor. Emerson, whom I mentioned previously, said, Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them.” I believe that to be true in your case. You didn’t accomplish much and kept your accounts on the tip of your finger. But your accomplishments, which I can assume from your writings, are astounding for your analysis of nature.
You achieved much within your mind. It is not the fact that matters, but the impression or effect of that fact on the mind. Your ideas have affected many people. Controversies have arisen from religious people who strongly oppose the idea of evolution because it conflicts with their religious beliefs. However, it has also affected others who believe in your theories or take them into perspective by changing their religious thoughts from blind faith to questioned faith. Unlike conformists, you went in a direction that differed from what was being taught in the institutions of Christ.
You decided not to just study nature in forms of reference books, but instead you went out to experience it. Although I do not totally agree with the way you lived your life, I applaud you on your accomplishments. Besides, if you followed everything that I think is right and took the beliefs that I hold, that would not allow you to be your own person and be self-reliant.
Sincerely,
Henry David Thoreau
