Disclaimer: I apologize but I am technologically inept and couldn’t figure out how to comment on digital thorough for the life of me.
Quite possibly one of the most fascinating bits of Walden that fits our criteria for moving up a level of abstraction occurs in Solitude, passage 5b, where Thorough begins by reflecting on the experience of having been asked by many men if he feels lonely all by himself in the woods, as they most certainly believe they would. In response, Thorough moves up a level of abstraction and begins to theorize that there is no reason to feel lonely, as it is not physical proximity to our companions that allows our minds to connect, but spiritual and mental interactions. The move seems necessary as it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to explain the reasoning behind emotions such as loneliness, or the absence of it, without moving up a level of abstraction by speaking in metaphors, similes, or other such non-literal forms of speech. Human emotions are in an odd sort of way, too complex for any literal language, often most effectively described through similes that convey the sensations emotions give rather than the emotion itself. In this way, it is both necessary and mildly entertaining, that Thorough, who so often gives off an air of superiority, is incapable of finding a superior way to communicate human emotions. It may affect the reading of others, as it did my reading, by giving Thorough an excuse to get slightly preachy and begin to over-generalize as he begins to once again go on about how (he believes) it is not other people we miss when we leave our home or society, but material comforts and possessions that we so often took for granted as part of a community. As usual, Thorough’s claims leave little to no room for opposing viewpoints and combine with his pedantic tone to unconvincingly assert themselves as facts, which may rub some readers the wrong way.