Chapter 6 Summary

Thoreau discusses his encounters with men, women and children who came to visit him at Walden Pond, having described his "solitude" in the previous chapter. Having glorified it in the previous chapter, he begins the next chapter by saying that he believes he is as fond as society as most people. He mentions the three chairs in his house to lead into his subject gradually. There were three chairs, "one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society." He reckons that there were as many as 25 or 30 in his cabin at any one time.

The "inconvenience" that Thoreau introduces at this point is the inability in such a small house to put enough distance between himself and his guests to for them to say big words and have big thoughts. Thoreau suggests that there is a need for thoughts to radiate, to travel...