We go eastward to realize history and study the work of art and literature, retracing steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.

The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the World. Every tree sends its fibers forth in search of the wild. The cities import it at any price. Men plow and sail for it. From the forest and the wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.

          — Henry David Thoreau, Walking, 1862