Henry David Thoreau was seemed born for great enterprise and for command, until he lossed his powers of action. He struggled at teaching school. He became a failure. One other person that is like Thoreau in that he became a failure is Ferdinand Magellan. He was only famous only after he died. He tried to make it around the world, but failed to do so.He was born into a life where he could do a lot with, and blew it off. Thoreau is a Transcendentalist.
             Admittedly, there is one example of Thoreau not following the Transcendentalist belief. In Walden, Thoreau lives in the forest 2 miles away from tow, so that he can be with nature. But, he goes into town every once and a while and moves in with Emerson 2 years later. "I lived there 2 years and 2 months. At present I am a so-journer in civilized life again" (233). If he were really trying to follow the Transcendentalist ways, he would isolate himself completely so he could be alone to interact with nature. Here, he is confessing that at present time, he is not living in the forest alone anymore, but with society once again. On the other hand, Thoreau does go out in Concord, Massachusetts to build a house 1-mile away from any neighbor, so he could make his peaceful relationship with nature, and to learn what life is supposed to teach. "...I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived" (237). He wants to view nature as a doorway to a spiritual world holding important truths.
             Moreover, in Walden, Thoreau gives examples of him coming in contact with nature and transcending reason and sensory experience, as do transcendentalists do. Thoreau is out one day and happens to notice two races of ants. "Looking farther, I was surprised to find a war between two races
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