Thoreau submits an essay on the prompt “‘The clock sends me to bed at ten, & makes me rise at eight. I go to bed awake, and arise asleep; but I have ever held conformity one of the best arts of life, and though I might choose my own hours, I think it proper to follow theirs.’ E. Montague’s Letters. Speak of the duty, inconvenience and dangers of conformity, in little things and great,” for a class assignment given him on 5 May.