the importance of the youth as innocent and pure. Such life must not be tainted by obscurities and the mundane routine of the city life but rather emerged, submerged in the purest form of existence-nature. Thoreau equates the outdoors (natural stimuli) with innocence when he states that "every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors" (17). Thoreau mirrors youthfulness to nature in order to convey a need of constant rebirth into purity and innocence that leads to a love of the earth.
             Thoreau provides an example of a life embracing youthfulness and the active search for change and perfection. The story of the man from Kouroo is a compelling anecdote for how humans can transcend time and reduce it to the simple illusion that it is. This passage and the story of the man as a whole can be taken as a metaphor that Thoreau is showing us, one which we can apply to our own lives. The art does not "compromise with time" or with other's opinions (211). The artist of Kouroo continuously searches for the perfect stick to make a staff until he finds that stick. He ignores even his friends' dissuasions and desertions and perseveres his pursuit to
             obtain that which will bring purity. Thoreau states, "Let us settle ourselves and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance" (63). The met
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