As one of the pioneers of the transcendentalist movement, Thoreau believes that spending time in nature has the power to liberate an individual from society’s attempts to devalue the authenticity of the human spirit. Throughout Walden, he concerns himself with observing and appreciating the intricacies, mysteries, and transformations of the natural world. In the same way that the environment “continually transcends and translates itself,” conscious thought and spiritual enlightenment have transformative influences on an individual’s evolution.

By asserting that “nature puts no question, and answers none which we mortals ask,” Thoreau clarifies nature’s supreme influence over mortal beings and questions the individual’s capacity to harness desires. In investigating how the soul replenishes the earth after death, he reiterates that humans have no control over nature. For example, in the chapter “Sound,” Thoreau questions humanity’s role in maintaining earth’s diverse ecosystem:

[Birds] are the spirits, the low spirits and melancholy forebodings, of fallen souls that once in human shape nightly walked the earth and did the deeds of darkness, now expiating their sins with their wailing hymns or threnodies in the scenery of their transgressions. They give me a new sense of the variety and capacity of that nature which is our common dwelling.

In this passage, Thoreau encompasses the inherent spiritual connections between all living creatures. Here, birdsong illustrates the ephemerality and interdependence of conscious beings, and with this description, Thoreau describes his conceptions of both transient existence and reincarnation. Further, he explains that he has “an instinct toward a higher . . . spiritual life” as well as toward “a primitive rank and savage one” in which he spends his days “more as the animals do.” The earth itself has a soul that needs replenishing, in the same way that each individual—plant, human, or animal—does, and accordingly, Thoreau seeks enlightenment through both spiritual self-reflection and immersion in his natural surroundings.