Near t doo
t to o build my
o cut doall, arroill in
timber. It is difficult to begin
borro per is t generous course to permit
your felloo erest in your enterprise. the owner
of t, said t it he
apple of I returned it s. It
h pine woods,
t on the pond, and a small open field in
the ice in
t yet dissolved, there were some open spaces,
and it urated er. there were
some slig I here;
but for t part o the railroad, on my way
s yelloche hazy
atmosphe
lark and peo commence another year
spring days, in wer of
mans discontent
orpid began to stretcself. One day, when my axe had
come off and I a green h
a stone, and o soak in a pond-o
sriped snake run into ter, and he lay
on ttom, apparently inconvenience, as long as I stayed
ter of an
yet fairly come out of torpid state. It appeared to me t for
a like reason men remain in t loive
condition; but if the spring of
springs arousing ty rise to a higher and
more ety
mornings in my pations of till numb and
inflexible, ing for to t of April
it rained and melted t of the day,
over the
pond and cackling as if lost, or like t of the fog.
So I on for some days cutting and imber, and also
studs and rafters, all having many
communicable or scs, singing to myself, --
Men say things;
But lo! taken wings --
ts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
t blows
Is all t any body knows.
I imbers six inc of tuds on
ters and floor timbers on one side,
leaving t of t t as straight
and mucronger tick was carefully
mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I ools by
time. My days in t very long ones; yet I
usually carried my dinner of bread and butter, and read the
ne noon, sitting amid the green
pine boug off, and to my bread ed some
of t of
pitche
pine tree, t doter
acquainted . Sometimes a rambler in ttracted
by tted pleasantly over the chips
which I had made.
By te in my
rat of it, my he
raising. I ty of James Collins, an
Irischburg Railroad, for boards. James
Collins sy was considered an uncommonly fine one. hen I
called to see it at tside, at
first unobserved from
tage roof, and not much
else to be seen, t being raised five feet all around as if it
part, though a good
deal tle by there was none,
but a perennial passage for the door board. Mrs. C.
came to to vie from the hens
were driven in by my approac was dark, and floor
for t part, dank, clammy, and aguish, only here a board and
t bear removal. Sed a lamp to
s the
board floor extended under t to step into the
cellar, a sort of dust deep. In hey
;good boards overhead, good boards all around, and a good
; -- of two w had passed
out t ely. tove, a bed, and a place to sit,
an infant in t was born, a silk parasol,
gilt-framed looking-glass, and a patent neo an
oak sapling, all told. the bargain was soon concluded, for James
urned. I to pay four dollars and
ty-five cents tonigo vacate at five tomorrow morning,
selling to nobody else meanake possession at six. It
icipate certain
indistinct but and
fuel. t six I passed
heir all --
bed, coffee-mill, looking-glass, t; sook
to t, and, as I learned afterward,
trod in a trap set for last.
I took dohe nails,
and removed it to tloads, spreading the
boards on to bleache sun.
One early te or the woodland
patreacrick t neighbor
Seeley, an Iriservals of ting, transferred
till tolerable, straigaples, and
spikes to , and tood he
time of day, and look fress,
at tation; th of work, as he said. he
o represent spectatordom, and his seemingly
insignificant event one roy.
I dug my cellar in to th,
whrough sumach
and blackberry roots, and t stain of vegetation, six feet
square by seven deep, to a fine sand oes freeze
in any er. t s stoned; but
till keeps its place.
It ticular pleasure in this
breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the
eartemperature. Under t splendid house in
ty is still to be found tore their
roots as of old, and long after tructure has disappeared
posterity remark its dent in till but a
sort of porc trance of a burrow.
At lengthe help of some of my
acquaintances, rato improve so good an occasion for
neigy, I set up the frame of my
er of his raisers
tined, I trust, to assist at the raising of
loftier structures one day. I began to occupy my h
of July, as soon as it he boards were
carefully feat it ly
impervious to rain, but before boarding I laid tion of a
c one end, bringing tloads of stones up the hill
from t ter my hoeing in
th, doing my
cooking in t of doors on the
morning: s more
convenient and agreeable t stormed before
my bread
under to c
little, but t scraps of paper whe ground, my
ableclotertainment, in fact
anshe Iliad.
It o build still more deliberately
tance, ion a door, a
, ure of man, and perchance
never raising any superstructure until ter reason for
it temporal necessities even. the same
fitness in a mans building there is in a birds
building its o. if men constructed their
dhemselves and
families simply and ly enougic faculty would be
universally developed, as birds universally sing whey are so
engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, wheir
eggs in nests w, and craveller
tering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign
truction to ter? does
arcecture amount to in the mass of men? I
never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and
natural an occupation as building o the
community. It is not tailor alone w of a
man; it is as muc, and the farmer.
o end? and does it
finally serve? No doubt anot it is
not t o the exclusion of my
thinking for myself.
true, tects so called in try, and I have
least possessed he idea of making
arcectural ornaments ruty, and hence
a beauty, as if it ion to him. All very well perhaps
from of vie only a little better the common
dilettantism. A sentimental reformer in arcecture,
t at tion. It a core
of truts, t every sugarplum, in fact, might
-- t almonds
are most ant,
t build truly , and let the
ornaments take care of t reasonable man ever
supposed t ornaments he skin
merely -- t tortoise got ted she shell-fish
its motints, by sucract as tants of
Broadrinity C a man o do he
style of arcecture of ortoise of its
so try to paint the
precise color of ue on andard. t
out. urn pale o me
to lean over timidly o the
rude occupants ter t of
arcectural beauty I now see, I know has gradually grown from
of ties and cer of the
indweller, w of some unconscious
trut ever a t for the
appearance and ional beauty of tined
to be produced y of
life. t interesting dry, as the
painter kno unpretending, s and
cottages of t is tants
y in their surfaces
merely, eresting will
be tizens suburban box, when his life shall be as simple and
as agreeable to tion, and ttle straining
after effect in tyle of proportion of
arcectural ornaments are literally ember gale
rip t injury to the
substantials. t arcecture who have no olives
nor if an equal ado the
ornaments of style in literature, and tects of our bibles
spent as mucime about tects of our
ctres and ts and
t concerns a man, forsooth, how a few
sticks are slanted over colors are daubed
upon sense,
ed t; but t ed out of
tenant, it is of a piece ructing he
arcecture of t;carpenterquot; is but another name for
quot;coffin-maker.quot; One man says, in o
life, take up a your feet, and paint your
color. Is and narrow house?
toss up a copper for it as well. an abundance of leisure be
must ake up a ? Better paint your
it turn pale or blush for you. An
enterprise to improve tyle of cottage arcecture! hen you
my ornaments ready, I hem.
Before er I built a che sides of my
o rain, and
sappy s slice of the log, whose edges I was
obliged to straigh a plane.
I igered en feet wide
by fifteen long, and eig posts, and a closet, a
large rap doors, one door at the end, and
a brick fireplace opposite. t cost of my he
usual price for sucerials as I used, but not counting the work,
all of whe
details because very feo tell exactly heir houses
cost, and feill, if any, te cost of the various
materials whem:--
Boards .......................... $ 8.03+, mostly sy boards.
Refuse shingles for roof sides ... 4.00
Laths ............................ 1.25
two second-hand windows
h glass .................... 2.43
One thousand old brick ........... 4.00
t was high.
han I needed.
Mantle-tree iron ................. 0.15
Nails ............................ 3.90
hinges and screws ................ 0.14
Latch ............................ 0.10
Chalk ............................ 0.01
transportation ................... 1.40 I carried a good part
------- on my back.
In all ...................... $28.12+
terials, excepting timber, stones, and
sand, . I have also a small
er
building the house.
I intend to build me a he main
street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me
as muc me no more t one.
I t tudent wer can
obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater t
more than is
becoming, my excuse is t I brag for y rathan for
myself; and my scomings and inconsistencies do not affect the
trutatement. Notanding muc and hypocrisy --
c difficult to separate from my for
ch
myself in t, it is suco bothe moral and
pem; and I am resolved t I ty
become ttorney. I o speak a good word
for trut Cambridge College t of a students
room, y dollars
eacion age of building
ty-t suffers
the inconvenience of many and noisy neighbors, and perhaps a
residence in tory. I cannot but t if we had
more true s, not only less education would be
needed, because, forsooth, more would already have been acquired,
but tting an education
measure vanisudent requires at
Cambridge or elseimes as great
a sacrifice of life as t on both
sides. t money is demanded are never
tudent most s. tuition, for instance, is
an important item in term bill, whe far more valuable
education ing cultivated of
emporaries no che mode of founding a
college is, commonly, to get up a subscription of dollars and cents,
and to
its extreme -- a principle h
circumspection -- to call in a contractor w
of speculation, and ives actually
to lay tions, s t are to be are said
to be fitting t; and for ts successive
generations o pay. I t it ter this,
for tudents, or to be benefited by it, even to
lay tion tudent wed
leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor
necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure,
defrauding he experience which alone can make leisure
fruitful. quot;But,quot; says one, quot;you do not mean t tudents
so ead of t; I do
not mean t exactly, but I mean somet think a
good deal like t; I mean t t play life, or study
it merely, s t this expensive game,
but earnestly live it from beginning to end. hs
better learn to live t once trying t of
living? Metheir minds as much as
matics. If I ts and
sciences, for instance, I pursue the common course, which
is merely to send o the neighborhood of some professor, where
anytised but t of life; -- to
survey telescope or a microscope, and never h
ural eye; to study cry, and not learn how his bread is
made, or mec learn is earned; to discover new
satellites to Neptune, and not detect tes in o
e o be devoured by the
monsters t sing ters
in a drop of vinegar. at the end
of a monthe ore
wed, reading as much as would be necessary
for ttended tures on metallurgy
at titute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers
penknife from likely to cut his
fingers?... to my astonis I was informed on leaving college
t I udied navigation! -- urn down
t it. Even tudent
studies and is taugical economy, w economy of
living w even sincerely
professed in our colleges. t while he is
reading Adam Smit
irretrievably.
As ;modern improvementsquot;;
t t alive
advance. ting compound interest to t
for ments in them.
Our inventions are to be pretty toys, our
attention from serious t improved means to an
unimproved end, an end too easy to arrive
at; as railroads lead to Boston or Ne e
to construct a magnetic telegrapo texas; but Maine and
texas, it may be, ant to communicate. Either is
in suc as t to be introduced to
a distinguis wed, and one end
of rumpet into o say. As if
t o talk fast and not to talk sensibly. e are
eager to tunnel under tlantic and bring the Old orld some
o t perc ne will leak
to t the
Princess Adelaide er all, the man whose
rots a mile in a minute does not carry t important
messages; an evangelist, nor does ing
locusts and wild if Flying Childers ever carried a
peck of corn to mill.
One says to me, quot;I you do not lay up money; you love
to travel; you migake to Fitcoday and see
try.quot; But I am . I the
sest traveller is goes afoot. I say to my friend,
Suppose ry . tance is ty
miles; ty cents. t is almost a days wages. I
remember s a day for laborers on this very
road. ell, I start no, and get t; I have
travelled at t rate by togethe
meanwime
tomorroo get a
job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working
er part of the railroad reached
round t I should keep ahead of you; and as for
seeing try and getting experience of t kind, I should
o cut your acquaintance altogether.
Suc, and
o t is as broad as it is
long. to make a railroad round to all mankind
is equivalent to grading t. Men have
an indistinct notion t if tivity of joint
stocks and spades long enoug length ride somewhere, in
next to no time, and for not to the
depot, and tor ss quot;All aboard!quot; whe smoke is
blo a few
are riding, but t are run over -- and it will be called, and
;A melanc.quot; No doubt t last
hey survive so long,
but t ticity and desire to
travel by t time. t part of ones life
earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the
least valuable part of it reminds me of t to
India to make a fortune first, in order t return to
England and live t.
at once. quot;!quot; exclaim a million Irisarting up from all
ties in t;is not t
a good t; Yes, I ansively good, t is, you
mig I wis
you could your time better t.
Before I finiso earn ten or twelve
dollars by some and agreeable meto meet my
unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a and
sandy soil near it c also a small part h
potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips. t contains eleven
acres, mostly groo pines and he
preceding season for eig cents an acre. One
farmer said t it ;good for not to raise cheeping
squirrels on.quot; I put no manure being the
o merely a squatter, and not expecting to cultivate so much
again, and I did not quite all once. I got out several cords
of stumps in plowing, wime,
and left small circles of virgin mould, easily distinguishable
ter luxuriance of there.
t part unmercable wood behind my house,
and the remainder of my
fuel. I o eam and a man for the plowing,
tgoes for t season
s, seed, c., $14.72+. the seed corn was
given me. ts anyto speak of, unless you plant
more t twelve buseen
busatoes, beside some peas and s corn. the yellow
corn and turnips oo late to come to anything. My whole income
from the farm was
$ 23.44
Deducting tgoes ............ 14.72+
-------
t .................. $ 8.71+
beside produce consumed and on time timate was
made of t on han
balancing a little grass hings
considered, t is, considering tance of a mans soul and
of today, notanding t time occupied by my experiment,
nay, partly even because of its transient cer, I believe t
t ter t year.
t year I did better still, for I spaded up all the land
he
experience of bot being in t awed by many
celebrated if
one only the crop which he raised, and
raise no more te, and not exc for an insufficient
quantity of more luxurious and expensive to
cultivate only a fe it would be co
spade up t to use oxen to plo, and to select a fresh
spot from time to time to manure the old, and he could do all
odd hours
in t be tied to an ox, or horse, or
co present. I desire to speak impartially on this
point, and as one not interested in the
present economical and social arrangements. I
t anco a house or
farm, but could follo of my genius, which is a very
crooked one, every moment. Beside being better off they
already, if my house had been burned or my crops had failed, I
should have been nearly as well off as before.
I am to t men are not so muche keepers of herds
as he freer.
Men and oxen exc if we consider necessary work only,
to ly tage, their farm is
so muc of the exchange work
in is no boys play. Certainly no
nation t lived simply in all respects, t is, no nation of
p so great a blunder as to use the labor of
animals. true, t likely soon to be a
nation of pain it is desirable t there
should be. however, I should never have broken a horse or bull and
taken o board for any work do for me, for fear I
sy seems
to be tain t w is one mans
gain is not anot table-boy has equal cause
er to be satisfied? Granted t some public works
ructed t man share
t follo he
could not more
case? o do, not merely unnecessary or artistic, but
luxurious and idle ance, it is inevitable
t a feher
rongest. Man t only works
for t, for a symbol of this, he works for
t antial houses of
brick or stone, ty of till measured by
to wown is
said to houses for oxen, cows, and horses
s, and it is not bes public buildings; but
this
county. It s be by tecture, but w even by
tract t, t nations so
commemorate t-Geeta
t! toemples are the luxury
of princes. A simple and independent mind does not toil at the
bidding of any prince. Genius is not a retainer to any emperor, nor
is its material silver, or gold, or marble, except to a trifling
extent. to w end, pray, is so mucone hammered? In Arcadia,
ions are
possessed ion to perpetuate the memory of
t of one t if
equal pains aken to smootheir manners? One
piece of good sense as high
as tter to see stones in place. the grandeur of
tone wall
t bounds an mans field ted t
rue end of life. the religion and
civilization whenish build splendid
temples; but y does not. Most of the
stone a nation os tomb only. It buries itself
alive. As for to in them
so muc t so many men could be found degraded enough
to spend tructing a tomb for some ambitious booby,
w would o he
Nile, and to t possibly invent
some excuse for t I ime for it. As for the
religion and love of art of t is muche same all
tian temple or the
United States Bank. It costs more t comes to. the mainspring
is vanity, assisted by tter. Mr.
Balcom, a promising young arcect, designs it on the back of his
Vitruvius, out to
Dobson amp; Sons, stonecutters. y centuries begin to
look do, mankind begin to look up at it. As for your high
tos, town who
undertook to dig to C so far t, as he
said, s and kettles rattle; but I t
I s go out of my o admire the hole which he made. Many
are concerned about ts of t and t -- to
kno, I so know who in
t build trifling. But
to proceed atistics.
By surveying, carpentry, and day-labor of various other kinds in
trades as fingers,
I months, namely,
from July 4to Marc, time es were made,
t counting potatoes, a
little green corn, and some peas, which I had raised, nor
considering t date -- was
Rice .................... $ 1.73 1/2
Molasses ................. 1.73 C form of the
saccharine.
Rye meal ................. 1.04 3/4
Indian meal .............. 0.99 3/4 Chan rye.
Pork ..................... 0.22
All experiments which failed:
Flour .................... 0.88 Costs more than Indian meal,
botrouble.
Sugar .................... 0.80
Lard ..................... 0.65
Apples ................... 0.25
Dried apple .............. 0.22
S potatoes ........... 0.10
One pumpkin .............. 0.06
One ermelon ........... 0.02
Salt ..................... 0.03
Yes, I did eat $8.74, all told; but I s thus unblushingly
publis, if I did not kno most of my readers were
equally guilty their deeds would look no
better in print. t year I sometimes caught a mess of fish
for my dinner, and once I so far as to slaughter a woodchuck
ion, as a
tartar s sake;
but t afforded me a momentary enjoyment, notanding a
musky flavor, I sa t use make t a good
practice, migo have your woodchucks ready
dressed by tcher.
Clotal expenses es,
ttle can be inferred from tem, amounted to
$ 8.40-3/4
Oil and some ensils ........ 2.00
So t all tgoes, excepting for washing and
mending, of the house, and
t yet been received -- and these are all and more
t in t
of the world -- were
house ................................. $ 28.12+
Farm one year ........................... 14.72+
Food eighs ....................... 8.74
Clotc., eighs ............ 8.40-3/4
Oil, etc., eighs ................. 2.00
-----------
In all ............................ $ 61.99-3/4
I address myself noo to
get. And to meet this I have for farm produce sold
$ 23.44
Earned by day-labor .................... 13.34
-------
In all ............................ $ 36.78,
ed from tgoes leaves a balance of
$25.21 3/4 on th
ed, and to be incurred -- and
on thus
secured, a comfortable o occupy
it.
tatistics, al and tructive
tain completeness, ain
value also. Not rendered some
account. It appears from timate, t my food alone
cost me in money about ty-seven cents a was, for
nearly ter t yeast,
potatoes, rice, a very little salt pork, molasses, and salt; and my
drink, er. It t I should live on rice, mainly, who
love so o meet tions of
some inveterate cavillers, I may as ate, t if I dined out
occasionally, as I al shall have
opportunities to do again, it ly to triment of my
domestic arrangements. But t, being, as I ated,
a constant element, does not in t affect a comparative
statement like this.
I learned from my t it
incredibly little trouble to obtain ones necessary food, even in
titude; t a man may use as simple a diet as the animals,
and yet retain rengtisfactory
dinner, satisfactory on several accounts, simply off a dish of
purslane (Portulaca oleracea) whered in my cornfield,
boiled and salted. I give tin on account of the savoriness of
trivial name. And pray w more can a reasonable man desire,
in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, t number of
ears of green s corn boiled, ion of salt? Even
ttle variety he demands of
appetite, and not of men o suc
tly starve, not for of necessaries, but for of
luxuries; and I know a good woman w his
life because ook to drinking er only.
t I am treating t rather
from an economic tetic point of view, and
venture to put my abstemiousness to test unless he has a
ocked larder.
Bread I at first made of pure Indian meal and salt, genuine
of doors on a shingle or
tick of timber sa
to get smoked and to ried flour
also; but last found a mixture of rye and Indian meal most
convenient and agreeable. In cold tle
amusement to bake several small loaves of this in succession,
tending and turning tian ching
eggs. t whey had
to my senses a fragrance like t of ots, which I
kept in as long as possible by hs. I made a
study of t and indispensable art of bread-making,
consulting sucies as offered, going back to tive
days and first invention of the
s and meats men first reache mildness and
refinement of t, and travelling gradually doudies
t accidental souring of t is supposed,
taugations
ter, till I came to quot;good, s, aff
of life. Leaven, wus
issue, which is religiously preserved like
tal fire -- some precious bottleful, I suppose, first brought
over in ts
influence is still rising, swelling, spreading, in cerealian billows
over thfully procured from
till at lengt the rules, and
scalded my yeast; by even this was
not indispensable -- for my discoveries by tic
but analytic process -- and I ted it since, though
most ly assured me t safe and wholesome bread
yeast mig be, and elderly people prophesied a speedy
decay of tal forces. Yet I find it not to be an essential
ingredient, and after going it for a year am still in the
land of to escape trivialness of
carrying a bottleful in my pocket, wimes pop and
discs contents to my discomfiture. It is simpler and more
respectable to omit it. Man is an animal wher
can adapt o all climates and circumstances. Neither did I
put any sal-soda, or oto my bread. It would
seem t I made it according to the recipe which Marcus Porcius
Cato gave about turies before C. quot;Panem depsticium sic
facito. Manus mortariumque bene lavato. Farinam in mortarium
indito, aquae paulatim addito, subigitoque pulchre. Ubi bene
subegeris, defingito, coquitoque sub testu.quot; ake to mean,
-- quot;Make kneaded bread troug
to trouger gradually, and knead it
t , and bake it
under a cover,quot; t is, in a baking kettle. Not a
leaven. But I did not alaff of life. At one time,
oo tiness of my purse, I sa for more than a
month.
Every New Englander miguffs
in t depend on distant and
fluctuating markets for t so far are y and
independence t, in Concord, fres meal is rarely sold
in till coarser form are hardly
used by any. For t part to tle and
least no more er cost, at tore. I saw
t I could easily raise my buswo of rye and Indian corn,
for t land, and tter does
not require t, and grind them in a hand-mill, and so do
rice and pork; and if I must rated s, I
found by experiment t I could make a very good molasses either of
pumpkins or beets, and I kne I needed only to set out a few
maples to obtain it more easily still, and whese were growing
I could use various substitutes beside those which I have named.
quot;For,quot; as thers sang,--
quot;o sen our lips
Of pumpkins and parsnips and -tree c;
Finally, as for salt, t grossest of groceries, to obtain this
mig occasion for a visit to the seashore, or, if I did
it altogeter. I do
not learn t troubled to go after it.
trade and barter, so far as my food was
concerned, and er already, it o get
clotaloons which I now wear were woven in a
farmers family -- tue still in
man; for I to tive as great
and memorable as t from to the farmer; -- and in a new
country, fuel is an encumbrance. As for a at, if I
permitted still to squat, I mig the same
price for ed
dollars and eigs. But as it I
enting on it.
tain class of unbelievers wimes ask me
sucions as, if I t I can live on vegetable food
alone; and to strike at t of tter at once -- for the
root is faitomed to answer suc I can live on
board nails. If t understand t, t understand
muc I o say. For my part, I am glad to bear of
experiments of tried; as t a young man tried for
a fortnigo live on eeth
for all mortar. tribe tried the same and succeeded.
terested in ts, though a few old
ed for thirds in
mills, may be alarmed.
My furniture, part of
me not rendered an account -- consisted of a
bed, a table, a desk, three inches in
diameter, a pair of tongs and andirons, a kettle, a skillet, and a
frying-pan, a dipper, a hree
plates, one cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a
japanned lamp. None is so poor t on a pumpkin. t
is slessness. ty of suc
in ts to be aking ture!
t and I can stand ture
a p be aso see
ure packed in a cart and going up country exposed to the
lig of empty
boxes? t is Spauldings furniture. I could never tell from
inspecting suc belonged to a so-called rich man
or a poor one; ty-stricken. Indeed,
the poorer you are. Each load
looks as if it contained tents of a dozen sies; and if
one sy is poor, times as poor. Pray, for w
do to get rid of our furniture, our exuvioe: at
last to go from to another newly furnished, and leave
to be burned? It is traps were
buckled to a mans belt, and move over the rough
country dragging them -- dragging
rap. left ail in trap. the
muskrat will gnaw o be free. No wonder man has
lost icity. en a dead set! quot;Sir, if I may
be so bold, ?quot; If you are a seer,
he owns, ay, and much
t ends to disown, beo chen
furniture and all trumpery w burn, and
o be o it and making w headway he can.
I t t a dead set hrough a
knot-e
follo feel compassion wrig,
compact-looking man, seemingly free, all girded and ready, speak of
;furniture,quot; as . quot;But w shall I
do ure?quot; -- My gay butterfly is entangled in a
spiders to have
any, if you inquire more narrowly you will find ored in
somebodys barn. I look upon England today as an old gentleman who
is travelling deal of baggage, trumpery which has
accumulated from long to
burn; great trunk, little trunk, bandbox, and bundle. throw away
t t least. It he powers of a well man
noo take up ainly advise
a sick one to lay down an
immigrant tottering under a bundle wained his all --
looking like an enormous he nape of his
neck -- I ied because t was because
to carry. If I to drag my trap, I will
take care t it be a lig nip me in a vital part.
But perc never to put ones pao it.
I it costs me nothing for
curtains, for I o s out but the sun and moon, and
I am t sour milk
nor taint meat of mine, nor ure or fade
my carpet; and if imes too still
better economy to retreat beain wure has
provided, to add a single item to tails of housekeeping.
A lady once offered me a mat, but as I o spare hin
time to spare to s, I
declined it, preferring to on the sod before my door.
It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
Not long since I at tion of a deacons
effects, for been ineffectual:--
quot;t men do lives after t;
As usual, a great proportion rumpery wo
accumulate in was a dried
tapeer lying ury in and
ot burned; instead of a
bonfire, or purifying destruction of tion, or
increasing of ted to viehem,
bougransported to ts and
dust o lie till tates are settled, whey
art again. .
toms of some savage nations might, perchance, be
profitably imitated by us, for t least go the
semblance of casting the idea of
ty or not. ould it not be
o celebrate suc;busk,quot; or quot;feast of first
fruits,quot; as Bartram describes to om of the
Mucclasse Indians? quot;oes t; says he,
quot;s,
pans, and otensils and furniture, t all
t clothings, sweep and
cleanse toh,
whey
cast togeto one common er
aken medicine, and fasted for the fire in
toinguis tain from the
gratification of every appetite and passion wever. A general
amnesty is proclaimed; all malefactors may return to to;
quot;On t, by rubbing dry wood
togethe public square, from whence every
ation in to;
t on ts, and dance and sing
for t;and ts and
rejoice owns who have in like
manner purified and prepared t;
tised a similar purification at the end of
every fifty-t it ime for the world
to come to an end.
I ruer sacrament, t is, as the
dictionary defines it, quot;outward and visible sign of an inward and
spiritual grace,quot; t t they were
originally inspired directly from o do they
ion.
For more tained myself the
labor of my , by six weeks in a
year, I could meet all the whole of my
ers, as of my summers, I had free and clear for
study. I ried sc my
expenses ion, or rat of proportion, to my
income, for I o dress and train, not to say think and
believe, accordingly, and I lost my time into the bargain. As I did
not teac simply for a
liveliried trade but I found t
it ake ten years to get under , and t then I
so tually afraid
t I mig time be doing w is called a good business.
to see w I could do for a
living, some sad experience in conforming to the wishes of friends
being freso tax my ingenuity, I t often and
seriously of picking surely I could do, and its
small profits migest skill o
but little -- so little capital it required, so little
distraction from my ed moods, I foolis. hile my
acquaintances unatingly into trade or the professions, I
contemplated tion as most like the hills
all summer to pick ter
carelessly dispose of to keep tus. I
also dreamed t I mighe wild herbs, or carry evergreens
to suco be reminded of to the
city, by loads. But I trade curses
everyt rade in messages from heaven,
trade attaco the business.
As I preferred some to others, and especially valued my
freedom, as I could fare succeed wish
to spend my time in earning rics or oture, or
delicate cookery, or a yle just
yet. If to erruption to acquire
to use them when acquired, I
relinquiso t. Some are quot;industrious,quot; and appear
to love labor for its o
of noto say. those
o do hey now enjoy,
I migo hey
pay for t their free papers. For myself I found
t tion of a day-laborer independent of
any, especially as it required only ty or forty days in a year
to support one. the
sun, and o devote o ,
independent of es from
monto monte from one end of to the
other.
In s, I am convinced, bot to
maintain ones self on t a a pastime,
if s of the simpler
nations are still ts of tificial. It is not
necessary t a man s of his
brohan I do.
One young man of my acquaintance, wed some acres,
told me t he
means. I my mode of living on any
account; for, beside t before I may have
found out anot there may be as many
different persons in t I would have each
one be very careful to find out and pursue his
fatead. th may
build or plant or sail, only let be
is by a matical
point only t ive slave
keeps tar in t is sufficient guidance for
all our life. e may not arrive at our port hin a calculable
period, but rue course.
Undoubtedly, in t is true for one is truer still
for a t proportionally more
expensive than a small one, since one roof may cover, one cellar
underlie, and one e several apartments. But for my
part, I preferred tary d will commonly
be co build to convince another of
tage of the
common partition, to be muc be a t
ot keep his side in
repair. tion which is commonly possible is
exceedingly partial and superficial; and tle true
co-operation t , being a harmony
inaudible to men. If a man e h equal
fait faitinue to live like
t of tever company o. to
co-operate in t as sense, means to get
our living toget proposed lately t two young men
sravel toget money,
earning , before t and behe plow,
t. It o
see t t long be companions or co-operate, since one
operate at all. t at t interesting
crisis in tures. Above all, as I he man
today; but ravels
till t ot may be a long time before they
get off.
But all townsmen
say. I confess t I o indulged very little in
perprises. I o a sense
of duty, and among othere
are ts to persuade me to undertake
t of some poor family in town; and if I o
do -- for t for t try my
some sucime as t. to
indulge myself in t, and lay their heaven under an
obligation by maintaining certain poor persons in all respects as
comfortably as I maintain myself, and ured so far as
to make tatingly
preferred to remain poor. oed
in so many o trust t one at
least may be spared to ots. You must
y as hing else. As for
Doing-good, t is one of the professions which are full.
Moreover, I ried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am
satisfied t it does not agree itution. Probably I
s consciously and deliberately forsake my particular
calling to do ty demands of me, to save the
universe from anniion; and I believe t a like but infinitely
greater steadfastness else. But I
stand between any man and o him who does
t and soul and life,
I doing evil, as it
is most likely they will.
I am far from supposing t my case is a peculiar one; no doubt
many of my readers doing something
-- I engage t my neig good -- I
do not ate to say t I sal felloo hire;
but is, it is for my employer to find out. good I
do, in t be aside from my main
pat part wended. Men say,
practically, Begin w aiming
mainly to become of more go
about doing good. If I o preac all in train, I
s about being good. As if top
ar
of tude, and go about like a Robin Goodfellow,
peeping in at every cottage ics, and tainting
meats, and making darkness visible, instead of steadily increasing
and beneficence till ness t
no mortal can look he meanwhile
too, going about t, doing it good, or
ratruer p
ting good. on, wiso prove h
by but one day, and drove out
of ten track, he lower
streets of h, and dried
up every spring, and made t desert of Saill at length
Jupiter o t, and the
sun, t shine for a year.
t which arises from goodness
tainted. It is is divine, carrion. If I knew for a
certainty t a man o my he conscious
design of doing me good, I s dry
and parcs called the simoom, which
fills t till you are
suffocated, for fear t I s some of o me
-- some of its virus mingled his case I
ural a good man
to me because arving, or warm me if
I s of a ditch if I should ever
fall into one. I can find you a Ne will do as
muc love for ones fello
sense. an exceedingly kind and hy man in
, comparatively speaking, w are a
o us, if t help us in our
best estate, o be helped? I never heard of
a ping in o do any
good to me, or the like of me.
ts e balked by those Indians who, being burned
at take, suggested neorture to tormentors.
Being superior to p sometimes c they
o any consolation whe missionaries could offer;
and to do as you h less
persuasiveness on t, did not
care er a new
fashey did.
Be sure t you give t need, t
be your example whem far behind. If you give money,
spend yourself , and do not merely abandon it to them. e
make curious mistakes sometimes. Often t so cold
and y and ragged and gross. It is partly his
taste, and not merely une. If you give him money, he
to pity the clumsy
Iris ice on the pond, in such mean and ragged
clotidy and somew more
fass, till, one bitter cold day, one who had slipped
into ter came to my o warm rip off
ts and tockings ere doo
ty and ragged enoug is true, and
t o refuse tra garments which I offered
ra ones. thing he
needed. to pity myself, and I sa it would be a
greater cy to bestohan a whole
slop-s the branches of
evil to one t, and it may be t he who
besto amount of time and money on the needy is doing
t by o produce t misery wrives
in vain to relieve. It is ting the
proceeds of every tento buy a Sundays liberty for the
rest. Some so them in
tc be kinder if they employed
t of spending a tent of your income
in cy; maybe you senth
it. Society recovers only a tent of ty then. Is
to ty of is found,
or to tice?
P tue wly
appreciated by mankind. Nay, it is greatly overrated; and it is our
selfises it. A robust poor man, one sunny day
oo me, because, as he
said, o the kind uncles and
aunts of teemed ts true spiritual fathers
and moturer on England, a man of
learning and intelligence, after enumerating ific,
literary, and political hies, Shakespeare, Bacon, Cromwell,
Milton, Ne of ian heroes,
o a
place far above all t, as test of t. they
he falsehood
and cant of t Englands best men and women;
only, per ps.
I subtract anyt is due to
p merely demand justice for all wheir lives
and o mankind. I do not value chiefly a mans
uprig were, em and
leaves. ts of wea
for t a employed by
quacks. I t of a man; t some fragrance
be ed over from o me, and some ripeness flavor our
intercourse. not be a partial and transitory act,
but a constant superfluity, ws hing and of which he
is unconscious. ty t itude of sins.
t too often surrounds mankind he remembrance
of off griefs as an atmosp sympathy.
e s our courage, and not our despair, our h and
ease, and not our disease, and take care t t spread
by contagion. From he voice of
itudes reside to whom we would
send lig intemperate and brutal man whom we would
redeem? If anyt perform his
functions, if is the
seat of sympats about reforming -- the world.
Being a microcosm is a true
discovery, and o make it -- t the world has been
eating green apples; to , tself is a
great green apple, the
c is ripe; and straightway his
drastic p tagonian, and
embraces thus, by a
fey, the meanwhile
using , he cures himself of his
dyspepsia, t bluss
c o be ripe, and life loses its
crudity and is once more s and wo live. I never
dreamed of any enormity greater tted. I never
knew, and never shan myself.
I believe t hy
ress, but, t son of
God, is e ail. Let ted, let the spring come
to he morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his
generous companions apology. My excuse for not lecturing
against tobacco is, t I never c, t is a
penalty here are
ture against. If you
srayed into any of t let
your left your rig is not h
knoie your srings. take your
time, and set about some free labor.
Our manners ed by communication he
saints. Our h a melodious cursing of God and
enduring even ts and
redeemers he hopes of
man. there is nowhere recorded a simple and irrepressible
satisfaction of life, any memorable praise of God.
All hdrawn
it may appear; all disease and failure o make me sad and does
me evil, may .
If, tore mankind by truly Indian, botanic,
magnetic, or natural means, let us first be as simple and well as
Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our own brows,
and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an
overseer of t endeavor to become one of thies of
the world.
I read in tan, or Flower Garden, of Sheik Sadi of
S quot;ted
trees y and umbrageous, they
call none azad, or free, excepting the cypress, which bears no
fruit; ery is ts
appropriate produce, and appointed season, during tinuance of
w is fresheir absence dry and
o neitates is the cypress exposed, being
alhe azads, or religious
independents. -- Fix not t on t ory; for
tigris, inue to floer
tinct: if ty, be liberal
as te tree; but if it affords noto give away, be an
azad, or free man, like t;
COMPLEMENtAL VERSES
tensions of Poverty
t presume too mucch,
to claim a station in t
Because ttage, or tub,
Nurses some lazy or pedantic virtue
In the cheap sunshine or by shady springs,
its and pot- hand,
tearing the mind,
Upon ues flourish,
Degradeture, and benumbeth sense,
And, Gorgon-like, turns active men to stone.
e not require ty
Of your necessitated temperance,
Or t unnatural stupidity
t knows nor joy nor sorrow; nor your forcd
Falsely exalted passive fortitude
Above tive. t brood,
t fix ts in mediocrity,
Become your servile minds; but we advance
Sucues only as admit excess,
Brave, bounteous acts, regal magnificence,
All-seeing prudence, magnanimity
t kno ue
For y no name,
But patterns only, such as hercules,
Aco thd cell;
And ened sphere,
Study to kno hies were.
t. CARE