Conclusion
generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or
because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would
himself in whatever attitude he find himself through obedience to
meekness and charity with goodness aforethought! Consider the China
the true ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were not?
that, for him and his work, the former lapse of time had been an
Hon. Mr. --- of Georgia or of Massachusetts, all transient and
residual statement. Their truth is instantly translated; its
door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live
necessary; and pile the empty cans sky-high for a sign. Were
stones, Brahma had awoke and slumbered many times. But why do I
are not where we are, but in a false position. Through an infinity
Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be
as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.
well-seasoned tomb -- heard perchance gnawing out now for years by
companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let
toadstools grow so. As if that were important, and there were not
To the sick the doctors wisely recommend a change of air and
and experimentalists we are! There is not one of my readers who has
inclines a little to congratulate itself on being the last of an
night in a southern bayou. Even the bison, to some extent, keeps
convinced that I cannot exaggerate enough even to lay the foundation
Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new
built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where
foundation. Let us not play at kittly-benders. There is a solid
I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; but
handselled furniture, to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!
on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money
rivet in the machine of the universe, you carrying on the work.
and ere he had put on the ferule and the head adorned with precious
maggot in their heads. What was the meaning of that South-Sea
help you God, and so only. Every nail driven should be as another
dash her head against a stone, even obey the precept of the old
But presently the travellers horse sank in up to the girths, and he
man to put himself in such an attitude to society, but to maintain
the astonished family of man, as they sat round the festive board --
had my thoughts about me. The philosopher said: "From an army of
poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my
like the Mameluke bey. I delight to come to my bearings -- not walk
never stood in the way of a well-considered and a firm resolve."
can, and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no
were bestowed on us the wealth of Croesus, our aims must still be
formal opposition" to what are deemed "the most sacred laws of
at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and
material; and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his
newspapers, for instance, you are but confined to the most
The wild goose is more of a cosmopolite than we; he breaks his fast
quadrupeds, flying as well as creeping things, and hush and whoa,
died, but he grew not older by a moment. His singleness of purpose
What does Africa -- what does the West stand for? Is not our own
for several weeks, hatched perchance by the heat of an urn. Who
in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet
but one order of understandings, could not sustain birds as well as
"Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos.
in front, our outlines dim and misty on that side; as our shadows
Yet we should oftener look over the tafferel of our craft, like
of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without
The towns poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives
more glorious vintage, which they had not got, and could not buy.
it.
bug which came out of the dry leaf of an old table of apple-tree
realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty
days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I
does not feel his faith in a resurrection and immortality
brightly as from the rich mans abode; the snow melts before its
artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had m藏书网ade
deposited at first in the alburnum of the green and living tree,
yet lived a whole human life. These may be but the spring months in
race in the sand, and then resumed his work. By the time he had
potatoes; and in the afternoon go forth to practise Christian
cold as the ices. I thought that there was no need of ice to freeze
Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise
southern Africa to chase the giraffe; but surely that is not the
your own streams and oceans; explore your own higher latitudes --
ingredient, but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to
which has gone the rounds of New England, of a strong and beautiful
vintage; but I thought of an older, a newer, and purer wine, of a
celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and
yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn
Coast, all front on this private sea; but no bark from them has
poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults
It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue. "Yes, we have
uplands; even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out
ordinary and mean. We think that we can change our clothes only.
and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks
There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to
you shall speak so that they can understand you. Neither men nor
wine.
strive after perfection. One day it came into his mind to make a
The interest and the conversation are about costume and manners
hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of
is. Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is
day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.
game he would be after. How long, pray, would a man hunt giraffes
friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and
in formal opposition to the most sacred laws of society." He
dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of
of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and
and at last earth down too.
they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
I do not suppose that I have attained to obscurity, but I should
way to India. If you would learn to speak all tongues and conform
The shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us, "and lo!
of a true expression. Who that has heard a strain of music feared
significant and vital experiences; you are compelled to deal with
the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a
find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough.
thinking of its long descent, it speaks of its progress in art and
stand or sit thoughtfully while it goes by. What are men
this sphere, summer and winter, day and night, sun down, moon down,
Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an
through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with
we think that if rail fences are pulled down, and stone walls piled
of the future or possible, we should live quite laxly and undefined
reality. Shall we with pains erect a heaven of blue glass over
one of those who will foolishly drive a nail into mere lath and
manners were truly regal. I should have done better had I called on
such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can
dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.
endeavor to be what he was made.
correspondent. Our voyaging is only great-circle sailing, and the
because he could not overcome him. Before he had found a stock in
biggest pygmy that he can? Let every one mind his own business, and
but tastes of weeds. The purity men love is like the mists which
wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable
There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet
pace with the seasons cropping the pastures of the Colorado only
creation widens to our view." We are often reminded that if there
love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with
satisfaction to commerce to spring an arch before I have got a solid
different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric
over the pail, leaps the cowyard fence, and runs after her calf, in
single scintillation from the brain of Bra99lib•nethma to fall on and inflame
curious passengers, and not make the voyage like stupid sailors
It is said that Mirabeau took to highway robbery "to ascertain
himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do
wish to go below now.
gallows, was asked if he had anything to say. "Tell the tailors,"
Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians.
never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness
society," through obedience to yet more sacred laws, and so have
framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the
that run away and enlist. Start now on that farthest western way,
private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of ones being alone.
that is, as long as we can remember them. The learned societies and
fear, that others may have fallen into it, and so helped to keep it
which does not pause at the Mississippi or the Pacific, nor conduct
open. The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet
may unexpectedly come forth from amidst societys most trivial and
above it. We know not where we are. Beside, we are sound asleep
away his thought." Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to
far inland the banks which the stream anciently washed, before
have not delved six feet beneath the surface, nor leaped as many
However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it
half way to it yet." So it is with the bogs and quicksands of
There are such words as joy and sorrow, but they are only the burden
I have more of God, they more of the road.
asleep, which they express by snoring. Sometimes we are inclined to
the tinder of a mortal brain. The material was pure, and his art
suppose a case, but take the case that is; to travel the only path I
work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse. So will
a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair
even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps
No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at
proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had
them. They talked to me of the age of the wine and the fame of the
tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage,
for ourselves. I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a
done great deeds, and sung divine songs, which shall never die" --
objected to its blue color, which is the evidence of its purity, as
by counting the annual layers beyond it; which was heard gnawing out
which we can substitute? We will not be shipwrecked on a vain
desperate. A saner man would have found himself often enough "in
the same, and our means essentially the same. Moreover, if you are
considered a ground for complaint if a mans writings admit of more
Plus habet hic vitae, plus habet ille viae."
the laws of his being, which will never be one of opposition to a
knowledge, with perennial youth. As he made no compromise with
virtues, which any work would make impertinent? As if one were to
year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched
wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction -- a
fates decided. If you are chosen town clerk, forsooth, you cannot
said, or done at a certain rare coincidence is good. I would not be
town; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting
living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang
preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely? Nay, be a
all respects suitable the city of Kouroo was a hoary ruin, and he
not grow in New England, and the mockingbird is rarely heard here.
laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal
to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more
the life of the race. If we have had the seven-years itch, we have
sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of
philosopher, and Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and
take the first stitch." His companions prayer is forgotten.
restricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy books and
than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the
in Connecticut, and afterward in Massachusetts -- from an egg
in another latitude, is not extravagant like the cow whi九九藏书网ch kicks
hall, and conducted like a man incapacitated for hospitality. There
all our muskrats. It was not always dry land where we dwell. I see
path from my door to the pond-side; and though it is five or six
winged life, whose egg has been buried for ages under many
the nerve. Only the defeated and deserters go to the wars, cowards
illustrious line; and in Boston and London and Paris and Rome,
travellers, be naturalized in all climes, and cause the Sphinx to
class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted,
smoothed and polished the staff Kalpa was no longer the pole-star;
Zanzibar. Yet do this even till you can do better, and you may
universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be
strengthened by hearing of this? Who knows what beautiful and
tested his resolution without going out of his way. It is not for a
established order on the surface. Truly, we are deep thinkers, we
that we would find? Are these the problems which most concern
Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble
tell me of California and Texas, of England and the Indies, of the
of a psalm, sung with a nasal twang, while we believe in the
man in a waking moment, to men in their waking moments; for I am
hammer, and let me feel for the furring. Do not depend on the
subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all
scenery. Thank Heaven, here is not all the world. The buckeye does
sermons are still listened to in the most enlightened countries.
indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas
years since I trod it, it is still quite distinct. It is true, I
may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the
coast, when discovered. Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger,
will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old
nothing with me. I called on the king, but he made me wait in his
putty. Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can
the British Empire like a chip, if he should ever harbor it in his
science and literature with satisfaction. There are the Records of
that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men
toward a wornout China or Japan, but leads on direct, a tangent to
is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
like frankincense to superior natures.
have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They
which has been gradually converted into the semblance of its
channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a
Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns
passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places.
Expert in home-cosmography."
The style, the house and grounds and "entertainment" pass for
want society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my
begin the day with long-suffering, and hire a man to hoe his
reminded of the greater Benefactor and Intelligence that stands over
themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable.
walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may -- not to live
and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his
mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from
the proper shape the dynasty of the Candahars was at an end, and
to get out. In sane moments we regard only the facts, the case that
not seen the seventeen-year locust yet in Concord. We are
unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles
"Direct your eye right inward, and youll find
notabilities they met at the dinner-table; but I am no more
great men of Assyria -- where are they? What youthful philosophers
wood, which had stood in a farmers kitchen for sixty years, first
pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind. This generation
we tolerate incredible dulness. I need only suggest what kind of
your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not
said he, "to remember to make a knot in their thread before they
the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success
in Canada, takes a luncheon in the Ohio, and plumes himself for the
plastering; such a deed would keep me awake nights. Give me a
me the human insect.
It is a ridiculous demand which England and America make, that
how you are yarded. The migrating buffalo, which seeks new pastures
society; but he is an old boy that knows it. Only what is thought,
picking oakum. The other side of the globe is but the home of our
"They pretend," as I hear, "that the verses of Kabir have four
trust it would be nobler game to shoot ones self.--
benefactor, and impart to its race some cheering information, I am
misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the
hence are in two cases at the same time, and it is doubly difficult
infernal fire nevertheless. The universe is wider than our views of
truth of which I have been convinced. Extra vagance! it depends on
there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat
three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in
go to Tierra del Fuego this summer: but you may go to the land of
bottom everywhere. We read that the traveller asked the boy if the
and that the United States are a first-rate power. We do not
or an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer? If the condition
if it were muddy, and preferred the Cambridge ice, which is white,
deposited in the living tree many years earlier still, as appeared
ourselves, though when it is done we shall be sure to gaze still at
swamp before him had a hard bottom. The boy replied that it had.
How long shall we sit in our porticoes practising idle and musty
were safety in stupidity alone. I fear chiefly lest my expression
score than was found with the Walden ice. Southern customers
without. It is the noise of my contemporaries. My neighbors tell
was pure; how could the result be other than wonderful?
the material which yields the most sugar and the most starch. It is
even the Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose? A
nothing else in my life. He proceeded instantly to the forest for
I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances
beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the
chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it as you will. They
if he could? Snipes and woodcocks also may afford rare sport; but I
me of their adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what
concentric layers of woodenness in the dead dry life of society,
This was manly, as the world goes; and yet it was idle, if not
him.
which Bright can understand, were the best English. As if there
out of the ground? The government of the world I live in was not
the day, and Webster is his orator. I love to weigh, to settle, to
him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for
believe that a tide rises and falls behind every man which can float
or the Mississippi, or a Northwest Passage around this continent,
narrow limits of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the
till a greener and sweeter grass awaits him by the Yellowstone. Yet
half so much courage as a footpad" -- "that honor and religion have
obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went
me -- not hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less -- not
observed to the boy, "I thought you said that this bog had a hard
ventured out of sight of land, though it is without doubt the direct
mankind? Is Franklin the only man who is lost, that his wife should
illusion, and that no more time had elapsed than is required for a
of our natures, we suppose a case, and put ourselves into it, and
And now he saw by the heap of shavings still fresh at his feet,
solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have
be so earnest to find him? Does Mr. Grinnell know where he himself
desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his
perhaps find some "Symmes Hole" by which to get at the inside at
The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this
insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track
potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which
declared that "a soldier who fights in the ranks does not require
being a trifler. No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity
life near the bone where it is sweetes
http://www•99lib•net
t. You are defended fromI left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps
fleeting phenomena, till I am ready to leap from their court-yard
It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in
in procession with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but to
is? Be rather the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clark and Frobisher, of
literal monument alone remains. The words which express our faith
be proud if no more fatal fault were found with my pages on this
away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as
envelop the earth, and not like the azure ether beyond.
gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts
and piety are not definite; yet they are significant and fragrant
with shiploads of preserved meats to support you, if they be
unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will
mind. Who knows what sort of seventeen-year locust will next come
in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but
spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and
It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple tree
doctrine of the Vedas"; but in this part of the world it is
science began to record its freshets. Every one has heard the story
stay to mention these things? When the finishing stroke was put to
state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who
last. England and France, Spain and Portugal, Gold Coast and Slave
then lest he should speak extravagantly any more forever? In view
just government, if he should chance to meet with such.
disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take
himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such
the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell
are ambitious spirits! As I stand over the insect crawling amid the
from my sight, and ask myself why it will cherish those humble
better than make-believe. Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the
prevails so much more widely and fatally?
I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was
interested in such things than in the contents of the Daily Times.
milking time. I desire to speak somewhere without bounds; like a
to the customs of all nations, if you would travel farther than all
nearly half our time. Yet we esteem ourselves wise, and have an
have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse.
staff. Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an
reveal an insensible perspiration toward the sun. The volatile
Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as
pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws
doctors prescribe for diseases of the skin merely. One hastens to
confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live
truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the
It is said that the British Empire is very large and respectable,
pine needles on the forest floor, and endeavoring to conceal itself
enough to understand you without them. As if Nature could support
five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the
what degree of resolution was necessary in order to place ones self
the Philosophical Societies, and the public Eulogies of Great Men!
of things which we were made for is not yet, what were any reality
thoughts, and bide its head from me who might, perhaps, be its
bottom." "So it has," answered the latter, "but you have not got
up on our farms, bounds are henceforth set to our lives and our
sat on one of its mounds to peel the stick. Before he had given it
with the point of the stick he wrote the name of the last of that
A thousand regions in your mind
his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished
it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not
acquainted with a mere pellicle of the globe on which we live. Most
interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the
last as the truth. This alone wears well. For the most part, we
was a man in my neighborhood who lived in a hollow tree. His