“I take infinite pains to know the phenomena of the spring, for instance, thinking that I have here the entire poem, and then, to my chagrin, I hear that it is but an imperfect copy that I posses and have read, that my ancestors have torn out many of the first leaves and grandest passages, and mutilated it in many places. I should not like to think that some demigod had come before me and picked out some of the best of the stars. I wish to know an entire heaven and an entire earth.” -Thoreau (Worster 66)
Thoreau's use of the term “demigod” to refer to his ancestors points out the intrinsic anti-nature behavior of the Puritan settlers. Thoreau's was frustrated by his ancestors' arrogance about nature, and their belief that they were closer to god and therefore were allowed by him to destroy as they saw fit. By claiming this, they placed themselves on a higher tier than their fellow animals and made of man something of a demigod. These humanistic views clashed with those of the Romantics, like Thoreau, who warned that “There is no place for man-worship.” (Worster 85). The settlers, believing that the earth and its inhabitants were put here by a higher being for their own unfettered exploitation, quickly cleared the land of “wilderness” and “civilized” it. They ripped the trees and animals out of the area like they were “tearing the leaves and grandest passages” of nature's poetic existence. The ripping out of pages suggests that this damage is irreversible, and those who come afterwards will never be able to enjoy this lost beauty.
Thoreau's thinking seems to be ahead of his time in realizing that large-scale destruction of nature can not always be replaced in its original form. His wish to know “an entire heaven and an entire earth” is in direct contrast with the Christian settlers' wish to know only what they want to know of earth. Their ignorance caused most of the forests of New England to be wiped, and the wildlife within them. Unfortunately, this arrogant outlook on the future of the planet has pursued since Thoreau's time, and soon we will have but small scraps of what was once whole.