Although he knew the positive qualities of the train, his description of “battering rams”, and the hills being stripped suggests the destruction and force it brought upon nature. This was a major issue and concern Thoreau had with this new innovation. He thought that it was disrupting the natural flow of nature, and therefore creating the destruction he feared. He states “I will not have my eyes put out and my ears spoiled by its smoke and steam and hissing” (Walden pg.100). Thoreau is illustrating that it is an unnatural, mechanical sound that interrupts his admiration for nature, and results in taking his mind back to the progressive, mechanical reality of the nineteenth century Industrial Revolution.
