wwh, thanks for posting the passage from Thoreau. I remember reading his essay on walking about 30 years ago--and it's one of his best. Who cares whether the etymology is questionable? It's still charming--or charmed.

I think of the dogs about Rocky Run here as being the blessed spirits--they cruise the countryside, most fairly safely since people here don't drive too fast. I think about how they take in the day--are out in it--at ease in it. And I've often thought about Thoreau's comments on the art of walking in looking at the various hounds on the roadside when I come home from work.

Thoreau might write in that essay that he walks a minimum of four hours a day--walking being as necessary to his mindset as reading.

But I do like the connection between sauntering and holiness--ideal connection between action taken and propensity toward transcendentalism.