Thoreau’s tricky relationship with the Church is neatly and humorously summed up here.

‘If it were not for death and funerals, I think the institution of the Church would not stand longer.’  15 November 1851

Source: Henry David Thoreau, The Journal 1837-1861, Damion Searls (ed.), preface by John R. Stilgoe (New York: New York Review Books, 2009), p. 97

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