“All perception of truth is the perception of analogy;
we reason from our hands to our  head.”
                                                                         —Henry David Thoreau

You can become a world traveler in your own backyard. Henry David Thoreau and William Blake are only two of many mentors you’ll follow in your Private Eye studies.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American author, naturalist and philosopher, who laid the foundations for modern environmentalism, famously said, “I have traveled widely in Concord.” He found so much beauty and intrigue in Concord, Massachusetts, it was as if he’d traveled all over the world.  You can be a world traveler in wisdom and nature studies, in art and poetry in your own neck of the woods using The Private Eye. As you get better and better at looking closely and thinking by analogy, as you study carefully what grows through cracks and crawls or flies or blooms in your own neighborhood —you can gain a world’s worth of knowledge.

You may also want to use the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake (1757-1827), as your guide, who said life’s goal is:

“to see the world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour"

The "Blake/Thoreau Gallery” gives glimpses of more teacher and student explorations using The Private Eye approach in drawing and writing, often integrated, in which the young writers and artists gain appreciation and insight into the world around them—as they develop their writing/thinking and close-observation skills. (You might also want to check out the math lesson in The Private Eye guide that uses Thoreau as inspiration. See page 177.)  On to the Gallery!