The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?
What is the point of the rhetorical question in this passage?
to suggest that being fully awake is an extraordinary thing
to express Thoreau's annoyance at sleepy, unproductive people
to tell us that Thoreau is afraid of looking others in the eye
to create a cornical effect by describing something impossible
Mom