By 1833 the family was somewhat more prosperous, and with the financial help of his older brother and sister and of his maiden aunts, Thoreau entered Harvard College. Spending a good deal of his time reading in the college library, the first good collection of books he had had access to, he did become gregarious enough to join a fraternity (apparently chiefly to have access to its library) and take part in debates and colloquiums. In the winter of 1835-1836, to solve his financial problems, he dropped out for a time and taught school in Canton, Massachusetts, and again in the spring of 1836, he dropped out because of what was apparently an early attack of the tuberculosis that was to plague his life. Despite these absences, he maintained a better than average scholastic record and at his graduation in 1837 was chosen as one of the honor students to speak on the "Commercial Spirit," at the commencement exercises wherein he startled his audience by suggesting, "The order of things should be somewhat reversed; the seventh should be man's day of toil, wherein to earn his living by the sweat of his brow; and the other six his Sabbath of the affections and the soul—in which to range this widespread garden, and drink in the soft influences and sublime revelations of nature"-a program of life which he himself was soon to adapt.
This is a free page. This page contains 171 words. This
biography contains 7,480 words (approx. 25 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Henry David Thoreau Access Pass.
