the first three at least. It would surpass the powers of a well man

rather, as a truer philosophy has discovered, the world going about

subegeris, defingito, coquitoque sub testu." Which I take to mean,

always flourishing; and of this nature are the azads, or religious

Toss up a copper for it as well. What an abundance of leisure be

labor of my hands, and I found that, by working about six weeks in a

answered the same purpose as the Iliad.

any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year

their kitchens. Would they not be kinder if they employed

literary, and political worthies, Shakespeare, Bacon, Cromwell,

over the land -- this seed I regularly and faithfully procured from

said to have the largest houses for oxen, cows, and horses

both money and trouble.

have a genius for charity as well as for anything else. As for

in this land of rye and Indian corn, and not depend on distant and

what vagabond he is a satellite himself; or to be devoured by the

Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it

inspecting such a load whether it belonged to a so-called rich man

are most wholesome without the sugar -- and not how the inhabitant,

price for which the land I cultivated was sold -- namely, eight

to me because he will feed me if I should be starving, or warm me if

semblance of casting their slough annually; they have the idea of

to spend my time in earning rich carpets or other fine furniture, or

The wind that blows

of duty, and among others have sacrificed this pleasure also. There

dictionary defines it, "outward and visible sign of an inward and

I have thus a tight shingled and plastered house, ten feet wide

sort of porch at the entrance of a burrow.

Milton, Newton, and others, speak next of her Christian heroes,

accumulated from long housekeeping, which he has not the courage to

you could have spent your time better than digging in this dirt.

job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working

I address myself now to those of my readers who have a living to

for the animal within him, but, for a symbol of this, he works for

weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak

I had earned $13.34. The expense of food for eight months, namely,

concerned, and having a shelter already, it would only remain to get

account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have

distraction from my wonted moods, I foolishly thought. While my

all summer to pick the berries which came in my way, and thereafter

but the pecuniary expense of getting an education would in a great

$ 8.40-3/4

value also. Nothing was given me of which I have not rendered some

in so many ways to the good of their fellows, I trust that one at

within outward, out of the necessities and character of the

is unconscious. This is a charity that hides a multitude of sins.

nor taint meat of mine, nor will the sun injure my furniture or fade

bought them all, and carefully transported them to their garrets and

looks as if it contained the contents of a dozen shanties; and if

least no more wholesome, at a greater cost, at the store. I saw

At length, in the beginning of May, with the help of some of my

living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely

were driven in by my approach. It was dark, and had a dirt floor

immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all --

livelihood, this was a failure. I have tried trade but I found that

cost me in money about twenty-seven cents a week. It was, for

and the law to do as you would be done by fell with less

farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very

I am far from supposing that my case is a peculiar one; no doubt

found by experiment that I could make a very good molasses either of

Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our own brows,

appetite, and not of health. Yet men have come to such a pass that

Dried apple .............. 0.22

of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if

When formerly I was looking about to see what I could do for a

morning: which mode I still think is in some respects more

lost his elasticity. How often he is at a dead set! "Sir, if I may

cellar, a sort of dust hole two feet deep. In her own words, they

materials which compose them:--

as the moon. I love better to see stones in place. The grandeur of

residence in the fourth story. I cannot but think that if we had

I learned from my two years experience that it would cost

that I might by that time be doing what is called a good business.

those days did not build them -- who were above such trifling. But

remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very

I shall not go out of my way to admire the hole which he made. Many

after effect in the style of his dwelling. A great proportion of

Mantle-tree iron ................. 0.15

not teach for the good of my fellow-men, but simply for a

which it is fresh and blooming, and during their absence dry and

chaff which I find it difficult to separate from my wheat, but for

had lain torpid began to stretch itself. One day, when my axe had

though little can be inferred from this item, amounted to

plates, one cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a

needed. Then I began to pity myself, and I saw that it would be a

at the stake, suggested new modes of torture to their tormentors.

sandy soil near it chiefly with beans, but also a small part with

should probably be on my way to the devil. I was actually afraid

spade up that than to use oxen to plow it, and to select a fresh

if we will live simply and wisely; as the pursuits of the simpler

but analytic process -- and I have gladly omitted it since, though

Upon whose stocks fair blooming virtues flourish,

Seeley, an Irishman, in the intervals of the carting, transferred

path, and for the most part wholly unintended. Men say,

consulting such authorities as offered, going back to the primitive

everything it handles; and though you trade in messages from heaven,

other dust holes, these things were not burned; instead of a

through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the

occasionally, as I always had done, and I trust shall have

part, I preferred the solitary dwelling. Moreover, it will commonly

means. I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any

must have! Why do you take up a handful of dirt? Better paint your

and parching wind of the African deserts called the simoom, which

study. I have thoroughly tried school-keeping, and found that my

their bills have not yet been received -- and these are all and more

of July, as soon as it was boarded and roofed, for the boards were

"The evil that men do lives after them."

which I am as sorry as any man -- I will breathe freely and stretch

eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller

Falsely exalted passive fortitude

fluctuating markets for them. Yet so far are we from simplicity and

is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have

only, perhaps, her best philanthropists.

being fresh in my mind to tax my ingenuity, I thought often and

its extreme -- a principle which should never be followed but with

saints. Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing of God and

quantity of more luxurious and expensive things, he would need to

rejoice with their friends from neighboring towns who have in like

by contagion. From what southern plains comes up the voice of

House ................................. $ 28.12+

not require the best, and grind them in a hand-mill, and so do

called to see it he was not at home. I walked about the outside, at

in the summer; and thus he would not be tied to an ox, or horse, or

home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy

cooking in the meanwhile out of doors on the ground, early in the

which I started, and the measure of expenses to be incurred -- and

the sun having never shone on them, the sand still keeps its place.

again, and I did not quite hoe it all once. I got out several cords

than all the ruins of the East! Towers and temples are the luxury

in the village garrets to be had for taking them away. Furniture!

Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my

Our manners have been corrupted by communication with the

precise color of his virtue on his standard. The enemy will find it

the things which the student most wants. Tuition, for instance, is

than all the ways by which money necessarily goes out in this part

Achilles, Theseus. Back to thy loathd cell;

believe, accordingly, and I lost my time into the bargain. As I did

do, in the common sense of that word, must be aside from my main

equally guilty with myself, and that their deeds would look no

no mortal can look him in the face, and then, and in the meanwhile

Two casks of lime ................ 2.40 That was high.

eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some

should say rather, Set about being good. As if the sun should stop

rather made the most of it, my house was framed and ready for the

substantials. They can do without architecture who have no olives

somebodys barn. I look upon England today as an old gentleman who

saccharine.

loftier structures one day. I began to occupy my house on the 4th

enterprise to improve the style of cottage architecture! When you

Indian meal .............. 0.99 3/4 Cheaper than rye.

The arts and sciences,

was of small dimensions, with a peaked cottage roof, and not much

do -- for the devil finds employment for the idle -- I might try my

earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the

satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution. Probably I

the oxen will be seen to have greatly the advantage, their farm is

celebrated works on husbandry, Arthur Young among the rest, that if

spent as much time about their cornices as the architects of our

is vanity, assisted by the love of garlic and bread and butter. Mr.

I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails,

But patterns only, such as Hercules,

gilt-framed looking-glass, and a patent new coffee-mill nailed to an

nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there

fall into one. I can find you a Newfoundland dog that will do as

sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit,

philanthropy, but merely demand justice for all who by their lives

Refuse shingles for roof sides ... 4.00

blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few

than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a

publish my guilt, if I did not know that most of my readers were

it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same

taught the leavening process, and through the various fermentations

an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable

follow him. I cannot but feel compassion when I hear some trig,

dollars by some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my

city, by hay-cart loads. But I have since learned that trade curses

the world.

through the summer by the greater luxuriance of the beans there.

leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor

I should be freezing, or pull me out of a ditch if I should ever

appearance and whatever additional beauty of this kind is destined

and removed it to the pond-side by small cartloads, spreading the

with his master to be satisfied? Granted that some public works

But perchance it would be wisest never to put ones paw into it.

first unobserved from within, the window was so deep and high. It

already, if my house had been burned or my crops had failed, I

The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be

amusement to bake several small loaves of this in succession,

building the house.

corn and turnips were too late to come to anything. My whole income

build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that

To claim a stationhttps://read.99csw.com in the firmament

pans, and other household utensils and furniture, they collect all

not mean that exactly, but I mean something which he might think a

the town is extinguished. During this fast they abstain from the

Moreover, I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am

bonfire, or purifying destruction of them, there was an auction, or

to such villagers as loved to be reminded of the woods, even to the

year, I could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my

All health and success does me good, however far off and withdrawn

to make them the offer, they have one and all unhesitatingly

were "good boards overhead, good boards all around, and a good

of the beaten track, he burned several blocks of houses in the lower

Clothing, etc., eight months ............ 8.40-3/4

luxuries; and I know a good woman who thinks that her son lost his

that I had studied navigation! -- why, if I had taken one turn down

some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there;

upon his box. It would signify somewhat, if, in any earnest sense,

manner purified and prepared themselves."

taken him to board for any work he might do for me, for fear I

All experiments which failed:

advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last

studs and rafters, all with my narrow axe, not having many

thereafter, till I came to "good, sweet, wholesome bread," the staff

would not have been constructed without this aid, and let man share

a brick fireplace opposite. The exact cost of my house, paying the

sun, through grief at his death, did not shine for a year.

I am willing that they should look in. The moon will not sour milk

exceedingly partial and superficial; and what little true

One says to me, "I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love

this time. My days in the woods were not very long ones; yet I

merely -- that the tortoise got his spotted shell, or the shell-fish

has wandered farther from the true end of life. The religion and

Or that unnatural stupidity

any, if you inquire more narrowly you will find have some stored in

The reader will perceive that I am treating the subject rather

And a thousand appliances;

These statistics, however accidental and therefore uninstructive

neighborliness than from any necessity, I set up the frame of my

who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must

present economical and social arrangements. I was more independent

would strip them off, like borrowed plumes, without injury to the

all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable

to him, the morning rise over his couch, and he will forsake his

As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements";

mans discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that

For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the

which fills its cellular tissue, which is religiously preserved like

themselves there? You boast of spending a tenth part of your income

It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately

to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg today and see

should become a horseman or a herdsman merely; and if society seems

But all this is very selfish, I have heard some of my townsmen

dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and

into the water came to my house to warm him, and I saw him strip off

Cambridge or elsewhere cost him or somebody else ten times as great

That knows no bound, and that heroic virtue

statement like this.

a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end

the country." But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the

As usual, a great proportion was trumpery which had begun to

insignificant event one with the removal of the gods of Troy.

atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the

trod in a trap set for woodchucks, and so became a dead cat at last.

The human race is interested in these experiments, though a few old

fruits," as Bartram describes to have been the custom of the

for the former will grow on the poorest land, and the latter does

different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each

so much the larger. Man does some of his part of the exchange work

here in Concord, praised a fellow-townsman to me, because, as he

But lo! they have taken wings --

persuasiveness on the ears of those who, for their part, did not

found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many

usually carried my dinner of bread and butter, and read the

indistinct but wholly unjust claims on the score of ground rent and

should have been nearly as well off as before.

last to go from this world to another newly furnished, and leave

physical system; and I am resolved that I will not through humility

I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on

spikes to his pocket, and then stood when I came back to pass the

Collins shanty was considered an uncommonly fine one. When I

else to be seen, the dirt being raised five feet all around as if it

Irishman who worked on the Fitchburg Railroad, for boards. James

there a board which would not bear removal. She lighted a lamp to

dyspepsia, the globe acquires a faint blush on one or both of its

which he now pays annually. If I seem to boast more than is

from the pond in my arms. I built the chimney after my hoeing in

cost, and fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various

the more you have of such things the poorer you are. Each load

With roots and pot-herbs; where thy right hand,

clothing and fuel. The pantaloons which I now wear were woven in a

his way, and has his reward; but, comparatively speaking, what are a

want but little -- so little capital it required, so little

That knows nor joy nor sorrow; nor your forcd

details because very few are able to tell exactly what their houses

to proceed with my statistics.

experiments of this kind being tried; as that a young man tried for

earning his means as he went, before the mast and behind the plow,

have an almond or caraway seed in it -- though I hold that almonds

wildness of nuts and meats men first reached the mildness and

it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game,

They then feast on the new corn and fruits, and dance and sing

its mother-o-pearl tints, by such a contract as the inhabitants of

heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making

brow, unless he sweats easier than I do.

obligation by maintaining certain poor persons in all respects as

maintain ones self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime,

preferred to remain poor. While my townsmen and women are devoted

Finally, as for salt, that grossest of groceries, to obtain this

at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers

made, or mechanics, and not learn how it is earned; to discover new

is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where

are those who have used all their arts to persuade me to undertake

venture to put my abstemiousness to the test unless he has a

mending, which for the most part were done out of the house, and

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.

should be. However, I should never have broken a horse or bull and

certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious

All-seeing prudence, magnanimity

it rained and melted the ice, and in the early part of the day,

earth for an equable temperature. Under the most splendid house in

to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out

animals. True, there never was and is not likely soon to be a

knowing. Rescue the drowning and tie your shoestrings. Take your

at once. "What!" exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all

penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his

given me. This never costs anything to speak of, unless you plant

least may be spared to other and less humane pursuits. You must

practice, however it might seem to have your woodchucks ready

ornaments of style in literature, and the architects of our bibles

most housewives earnestly assured me that safe and wholesome bread

The Jesuits were quite balked by those Indians who, being burned

greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it. But I

know who built them. For my part, I should like to know who in

mornings in my path with portions of their bodies still numb and

should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular

such questions as, if I think that I can live on vegetable food

spiders web then. Even those who seem for a long while not to have

of worse mischief; to such I have at present nothing to say. Those

truth of my statement. Notwithstanding much cant and hypocrisy --

discovery, and he is the man to make it -- that the world has been

eating green apples; to his eyes, in fact, the globe itself is a

bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, a looking-glass three inches in

hand at some such pastime as that. However, when I have thought to

little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my

the cornice, not at the foundation. It was only how to put a core

he will appear to be harnessed to it and making what headway he can.

locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a

the house, nor time to spare within or without to shake it, I

for all mortar. The squirrel tribe tried the same and succeeded.

reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt

uprightness and benevolence, which are, as it were, his stem and

One thousand old brick ........... 4.00

One watermelon ........... 0.02

are riding, but the rest are run over -- and it will be called, and

borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit

Bread I at first made of pure Indian meal and salt, genuine

me nothing of which I have not rendered an account -- consisted of a

themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if

architectural beauty I now see, I know has gradually grown from

respectable to omit it. Man is an animal who more than any other

great green apple, which there is danger awful to think of that the

Because thy humble cottage, or thy tub,

universe from annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely

religion and love of art of the builders, it is much the same all

If, then, we would indeed restore mankind by truly Indian, botanic,

woodshed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which was left after

which subtracted from the sum of the outgoes leaves a balance of

life because he took to drinking water only.

aunts of the race are more esteemed than its true spiritual fathers

his "furniture," as whether it is insured or not. "But what shall I

Clothing and some incidental expenses within the same dates,

this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals,

the rest of the world, whatever company he is joined to. To

amnesty is proclaimed; all malefactors may return to their town."

Boards .......................... $ 8.03+, mostly shanty boards.

life, take up a handful of the earth at your feet, and paint your

and hungry as he is dirty and ragged and gross. It is partly his

influence is still rising, swelling, spreading, in cerealian billows

when I was there, I did not see any hammering stone. Nations are

towers and monuments, there was a crazy fellow once in this town who

more true wisdom in these respects, not only less education would be

should ever be betrayed into any of these philanthropies, do not let

as much and will cost me no more than my present one.

but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to

but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way

bushels of potatoes, beside some peas and sweet corn. The yellow

travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the

seat of sympathy -- he forthwith sets about reforming -- the world.

I would say, Persevere, even if the world call it doing ev九*九*藏*書il, as it

do not hesitate to say that I should be a capital fellow to hire;

burn; great trunk, little trunk, bandbox, and bundle. Throw away

messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating

One early thrush gave me a note or two as I drove along the woodland

said, he was kind to the poor; meaning himself. The kind uncles and

the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are

out. He may turn pale when the trial comes. This man seemed to me

to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby,

which I had made.

on the other, beside the leisure and independence and health thus

posterity remark its dent in the earth. The house is still but a

nations are still the sports of the more artificial. It is not

Degradeth nature, and benumbeth sense,

in a drop of vinegar. Which would have advanced the most at the end

drink, water. It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who

alone; and to strike at the root of the matter at once -- for the

point, and as one not interested in the success or failure of the

communicable or scholar-like thoughts, singing to myself, --

leaven. But I did not always use this staff of life. At one time,

country, fuel is an encumbrance. As for a habitat, if I were not

circumspection -- to call in a contractor who makes this a subject

and blackberry roots, and the lowest stain of vegetation, six feet

boxes? That is Spauldings furniture. I could never tell from

crisis in their adventures. Above all, as I have implied, the man

the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does

it. Society recovers only a tenth part of the property then. Is

and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an

show me the inside of the roof and the walls, and also that the

their worn out clothes and other despicable things, sweep and

of princes. A simple and independent mind does not toil at the

meats, and making darkness visible, instead of steadily increasing

"For," as the Forefathers sang,--

gain is not anothers loss, and that the stable-boy has equal cause

I have scarcely heard of a truer sacrament, that is, as the

studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of

travel by that time. This spending of the best part of ones life

Every New Englander might easily raise all his own breadstuffs

light of heaven and the eyes of men, a beggarly account of empty

Apples ................... 0.25

gratification of every appetite and passion whatever. A general

make curious mistakes sometimes. Often the poor man is not so cold

the tenant, it is of a piece with constructing his own coffin -- the

Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve

sticks are slanted over him or under him, and what colors are daubed

Sugar .................... 0.80

I would not subtract anything from the praise that is due to

sides. Those things for which the most money is demanded are never

professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is

it would take ten years to get under way in that, and that then I

I might advise to work twice as hard as they do -- work till they

the animal without him. Though we have many substantial houses of

experience of both years, not being in the least awed by many

England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret

days and first invention of the unleavened kind, when from the

These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, and

had in the meanwhile returned. I to pay four dollars and

Chalk ............................ 0.01

selfishness which overrates it. A robust poor man, one sunny day

one would live simply and eat only the crop which he raised, and

spend yourself with it, and do not merely abandon it to them. We

My furniture, part of which I made myself -- and the rest cost

window" -- of two whole squares originally, only the cat had passed

better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of

repair. The only co-operation which is commonly possible is

place far above all the rest, as the greatest of the great. They

of the sixth magnitude, and go about like a Robin Goodfellow,

dust holes, to lie there till their estates are settled, when they

Yes, I did eat $8.74, all told; but I should not thus unblushingly

they may appear, as they have a certain completeness, have a certain

We not require the dull society

In all ............................ $ 61.99-3/4

Tearing those humane passions from the mind,

a constant element, does not in the least affect a comparative

spot from time to time than to manure the old, and he could do all

the end of a stick of timber sawed off in building my house; but it

bed, coffee-mill, looking-glass, hens -- all but the cat; she took

cheeks, as if it were beginning to be ripe, and life loses its

purslane (Portulaca oleracea) which I gathered in my cornfield,

which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary

to come to an end.

breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the

preceding season for eight dollars and eight cents an acre. One

painter knows, are the most unpretending, humble log huts and

fingers?... To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college

told me that he thought he should live as I did, if he had the

other may prove a bad neighbor, and also not keep his side in

the support of some poor family in the town; and if I had nothing to

some excuse for them and him, but I have no time for it. As for the

philosophers, would commit so great a blunder as to use the labor of

land of the living; and I am glad to escape the trivialness of

with his fellows in distress, but, though he be the holiest son of

Is all that any body knows.

fashion, and came very near freely forgiving them all they did.

fitness in a mans building his own house that there is in a birds

two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side,

in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to

$ 23.44

As I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my

community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a

the thing, whether they have the reality or not. Would it not be

do we move ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuvioe: at

incredibly little trouble to obtain ones necessary food, even in

were well, he said, to be there early, and anticipate certain

One young man of my acquaintance, who has inherited some acres,

and memorable as that from the man to the farmer; -- and in a new

with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign

Transportation ................... 1.40 I carried a good part

path. I was informed treacherously by a young Patrick that neighbor

be your example which leaves them far behind. If you give money,

redeemers had rather consoled the fears than confirmed the hopes of

hereabouts, and it is not behindhand in its public buildings; but

your left hand know what your right hand does, for it is not worth

acquaintances went unhesitatingly into trade or the professions, I

chimney at one end, bringing two cartloads of stones up the hill

with glass .................... 2.43

$ 23.44

common partition, to be much cheaper, must be a thin one, and that

Mucclasse Indians? "When a town celebrates the busk," says he,

the village in the meanwhile, for I have as many trades as fingers,

his necessary farm work as it were with his left hand at odd hours

expensive than a small one, since one roof may cover, one cellar

who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long,

Nile, and then given his body to the dogs. I might possibly invent

Being a microcosm himself, he discovers -- and it is a true

will start again. When a man dies he kicks the dust.

the world over, whether the building be an Egyptian temple or the

this owing to the generosity of him in whose possession it is found,

rest. Some show their kindness to the poor by employing them in

would not stand between any man and his genius; and to him who does

Of your necessitated temperance,

for a thousand, as a large house is not proportionally more

universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so

farmers family -- thank Heaven there is so much virtue still in

I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds

increasing of them. The neighbors eagerly collected to view them,

twenty-five cents tonight, he to vacate at five tomorrow morning,

country where our lines are cast without dragging them -- dragging

horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important

in vain to relieve. It is the pious slave-breeder devoting the

our living together. I heard it proposed lately that two young men

the harbor I should have known more about it. Even the poor student

have to cut your acquaintance altogether.

So I went on for some days cutting and hewing timber, and also

also dreamed that I might gather the wild herbs, or carry evergreens

Men say they know many things;

pond and cackling as if lost, or like the spirit of the fog.

accumulate in his fathers day. Among the rest was a dried

children of men will nibble before it is ripe; and straightway his

each year, though the corporation had the advantage of building

considering the value of what was on hand at the last date -- was

case? When men begin to do, not merely unnecessary or artistic, but

drastic philanthropy seeks out the Esquimau and the Patagonian, and

as the date tree; but if it affords nothing to give away, be an

Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to

that was doing better than any farmer in Concord did that year.

roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared

Food eight months ....................... 8.74

tapeworm. And now, after lying half a century in his garret and

the little variety which I used was a yielding to the demands of

the still tolerable, straight, and drivable nails, staples, and

board floor extended under the bed, warning me not to step into the

Men and oxen exchange work; but if we consider necessary work only,

street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me

and left small circles of virgin mould, easily distinguishable

is most likely they will.

him, he had so many intra ones. This ducking was the very thing he

yet. If there are any to whom it is no interruption to acquire

every fifty-two years, in the belief that it was time for the world

were Penn, Howard, and Mrs. Fry. Every one must feel the falsehood

or a poor one; the owner always seemed poverty-stricken. Indeed,

boiled and salted. I give the Latin on account of the savoriness of

way. In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but

which he tells me he would like to do. It is by a mathematical

the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my

never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and

considered, that is, considering the importance of a mans soul and

the trivial name. And pray what more can a reasonable man desire,

pine tree, though I had cut down some of them, having become better

Latch ............................ 0.10

than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or

or to the remissness of the officers of justice?

curtains, for I have no gazers to shut out but the sun and moon, and

little green corn, and some peas, which I had raised, nor

of stumps in plowing, which supplied me with fuel for a long time,

needed, because, forsooth, more would already have been acquired,

myself; and my shortcomings and inconsistencies do not affect the

the indweller, might build truly within and without, and let the

bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing

I dug my cellar in the side of a hill sloping to the south,

say. I confess that I have hitherto indulged very little in

were, for implements, seed, work, etc., $14.72+. The seed corn was

all of which was done by myself, was as follows; and I give the

I could use various subs九九藏書titutes beside those which I have named.

to lean over the cornice, and timidly whisper his half truth to the

luxurious and idle work, with their assistance, it is inevitable

ingredient, and after going without it for a year am still in the

acquainted with it. Sometimes a rambler in the wood was attracted

and cant of this. The last were not Englands best men and women;

potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips. The whole lot contains eleven

In the cheap sunshine or by shady springs,

Rice .................... $ 1.73 1/2

indulge myself in this respect, and lay their Heaven under an

spiritual grace," than this, and I have no doubt that they were

some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out

better economy to retreat behind some curtain which nature has

was there to represent spectatordom, and help make this seemingly

Thus I could avoid all trade and barter, so far as my food was

in his six weeks of haying, and it is no boys play. Certainly no

income, for I was obliged to dress and train, not to say think and

for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them.

peeping in at every cottage window, inspiring lunatics, and tainting

many of my readers would make a similar defence. At doing something

usual price for such materials as I used, but not counting the work,

a sick one to lay down his bed and run. When I have met an

women who are incapacitated for them, or who own their thirds in

boards on the grass there to bleach and warp back again in the sun.

not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my

the skin, though they were dirty and ragged enough, it is true, and

up every spring, and made the great desert of Sahara, till at length

delicate cookery, or a house in the Grecian or the Gothic style just

this to be burned? It is the same as if all these traps were

Two second-hand windows

Suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is thirty

three pairs of pants and two pairs of stockings ere he got down to

convenient and agreeable than the usual one. When it stormed before

quacks. I want the flower and fruit of a man; that some fragrance

over in the Mayflower, did the business for America, and its

shell: nor need the soldier be so idle as to try to paint the

should go to work with their hands instead of their heads?" I do

on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed

look down on it, mankind begin to look up at it. As for your high

would not operate at all. They would part at the first interesting

living, some sad experience in conforming to the wishes of friends

is its material silver, or gold, or marble, except to a trifling

at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste

his furniture packed in a cart and going up country exposed to the

oak sapling, all told. The bargain was soon concluded, for James

good to me, or the like of me.

philanthropic enterprises. I have made some sacrifices to a sense

cultivate only a few rods of ground, and that it would be cheaper to

Irish laborers who cut ice on the pond, in such mean and ragged

see that they could not long be companions or co-operate, since one

overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of

holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact

acquaintances, rather to improve so good an occasion for

cleanse their houses, squares, and the whole town of their filth,

dollars and eight cents. But as it was, I considered that I

seriously of picking huckleberries; that surely I could do, and its

Become your servile minds; but we advance

my bread was baked, I fixed a few boards over the fire, and sat

house. No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers

miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a days wages. I

where a woodchuck had formerly dug his burrow, down through sumach

Being superior to physical suffering, it sometimes chanced that they

as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer.

muskrat will gnaw his third leg off to be free. No wonder man has

potatoes, rice, a very little salt pork, molasses, and salt; and my

Thebes was a vulgar grandeur. More sensible is a rod of stone wall

defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure

provided, than to add a single item to the details of housekeeping.

One pumpkin .............. 0.06

more ethereal life. I had previously seen the snakes in frosty

take care that it be a light one and do not nip me in a vital part.

attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an

co-operate in the highest as well as the lowest sense, means to get

undertook to dig through to China, and he got so far that, as he

alive. As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them

education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of

depot, and the conductor shouts "All aboard!" when the smoke is

will perhaps buy more rags with it. I was wont to pity the clumsy

put any sal-soda, or other acid or alkali, into my bread. It would

tending and turning them as carefully as an Egyptian his hatching

impervious to rain, but before boarding I laid the foundation of a

stone a nation hammers goes toward its tomb only. It buries itself

small profits might suffice -- for my greatest skill has been to

other.

swell the wood, I saw a striped snake run into the water, and he lay

enduring Him forever. One would say that even the prophets and

his genial heat and beneficence till he is of such brightness that

least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to

That fix their seats in mediocrity,

satisfaction with the gift of life, any memorable praise of God.

co-operation there is, is as if it were not, being a harmony

that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of

without rice and pork; and if I must have some concentrated sweet, I

Study to know but what those worthies were.

mathematics. If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and

his natural eye; to study chemistry, and not learn how his bread is

convenient and agreeable. In cold weather it was no little

a sacrifice of life as they would with proper management on both

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness

house that color. Is he thinking of his last and narrow house?

for the truth. At Cambridge College the mere rent of a students

words, become the slaves of the strongest. Man thus not only works

Dobson & Sons, stonecutters. When the thirty centuries begin to

window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance

never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for

Above the active. This low abject brood,

suffocated, for fear that I should get some of his good done to me

enhanced the value of the land by squatting on it.

house your own complexion; let it turn pale or blush for you. An

house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in

independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our

temples; but what you might call Christianity does not. Most of the

dreamed of any enormity greater than I have committed. I never

neck -- I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because

satellites to Neptune, and not detect the motes in his eyes, or to

nor wines in the cellar. What if an equal ado were made about the

indweller, who is the only builder -- out of some unconscious

for the sick serve but a humble use, and are most employed by

this work, which I decline, with his whole heart and soul and life,

greater charity to bestow on me a flannel shirt than a whole

scalded my yeast; by which accident I discovered that even this was

which ravaged my bean-field -- effect his transmigration, as a

-- some of its virus mingled with my blood. No -- in this case I

"having previously provided themselves with new clothes, new pots,

springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and

In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to

his trap. He was a lucky fox that left his tail in the trap. The

and it was all dark-colored and saturated with water. There were

diameter, a pair of tongs and andirons, a kettle, a skillet, and a

Nurses some lazy or pedantic virtue

the fall, before a fire became necessary for warmth, doing my

would rather suffer evil the natural way. A man is not a good man

swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend,

will be, "A melancholy accident." No doubt they can ride at last

-------

about doing good. If I were to preach at all in this strain, I

buckled to a mans belt, and he could not move over the rough

Hair ............................. 0.31 More than I needed.

opportunities to do again, it was frequently to the detriment of my

architectural ornaments are literally hollow, and a September gale

maples to obtain it more easily still, and while these were growing

newspaper in which it was wrapped, at noon, sitting amid the green

to be produced will be preceded by a like unconscious beauty of

there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not

time of day, and look freshly up, unconcerned, with spring thoughts,

Rye meal ................. 1.04 3/4

road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have

appreciated by mankind. Nay, it is greatly overrated; and it is our

carelessly dispose of them; so, to keep the flocks of Admetus. I

your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner

Thou dost presume too much, poor needy wretch,

owing to the emptiness of my purse, I saw none of it for more than a

The Pretensions of Poverty

For which antiquity hath left no name,

for the students, or those who desire to be benefited by it, even to

lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year

thinking for myself.

a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive

point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave

it.

leaving the rest of the bark on, so that they were just as straight

commemorate themselves? How much more admirable the Bhagvat-Geeta

facito. Manus mortariumque bene lavato. Farinam in mortarium

nay, partly even because of its transient character, I believe that

the vestal fire -- some precious bottleful, I suppose, first brought

rude occupants who really knew it better than he. What of

but a perennial passage for the hens under the door board. Mrs. C.

to lay the foundations, while the students that are to be are said

and then, following blindly the principles of a division of labor to

Farm one year ........................... 14.72+

the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in

sense. Howard was no doubt an exceedingly kind and worthy man in

slop-shop on him. There are a thousand hacking at the branches of

acres, mostly growing up to pines and hickories, and was sold the

get off.

county. It should not be by their architecture, but why not even by

The philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance

with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is

expenses were in proportion, or rather out of proportion, to my

thoroughly. When you have kneaded it well, mould it, and bake it

be the citizens suburban box, when his life shall be as simple and

By surveying, carpentry, and day-labor of various other kinds in

a good thing?" Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you

for my dinner, and once I went so far as to slaughter a woodchuck

mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by

measure vanish. Those conveniences which the student requires at

building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their

few years of philanthropic activity, the powers in the meanwhile

that he pretends to disown, behind him, even to his kitchen

under them to watch my loaf, and passed some pleasant hours in that

without it altogether, I should probaread.99csw.combly drink the less water. I do

stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in

in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of

that bounds an honest mans field than a hundred-gated Thebes that

azad, or free man, like the cypress."

A lady once offered me a mat, but as I had no room to spare within

month.

I believe that what so saddens the reformer is not his sympathy

generations have to pay. I think that it would be better than this,

meanwhile have earned your fare, and arrive there some time

practically, Begin where you are and such as you are, without aiming

next to no time, and for nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the

necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure,

large window on each side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and

to be the gainer by so doing, are we certain that what is one mans

contemplated this occupation as most like theirs; ranging the hills

have no Biblical record of the revelation.

and much stronger than sawed ones. Each stick was carefully

the advantage of the common wall; and when you have done this, the

the meal into the trough, add water gradually, and knead it

college is, commonly, to get up a subscription of dollars and cents,

that he could afford to refuse the extra garments which I offered

piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high

the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their

Deducting the outgoes ............ 14.72+

whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the

withered; to neither of which states is the cypress exposed, being

best estate, when we are most worthy to be helped? I never heard of

much. Philanthropy is not love for ones fellow-man in the broadest

I read in the Gulistan, or Flower Garden, of Sheik Sadi of

survey the world through a telescope or a microscope, and never with

churches do? So are made the belles-lettres and the beaux-arts and

a philanthropic meeting in which it was sincerely proposed to do any

I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main

also; but have at last found a mixture of rye and Indian meal most

Such virtues only as admit excess,

came to the door and asked me to view it from the inside. The hens

of a month -- the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore

fuel. I was obliged to hire a team and a man for the plowing,

"On the fourth morning, the high priest, by rubbing dry wood

inaudible to men. If a man has faith, he will co-operate with equal

raise no more than he ate, and not exchange it for an insufficient

is shiftlessness. There is a plenty of such chairs as I like best

the inconvenience of many and noisy neighbors, and perhaps a

engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their

The next year I did better still, for I spaded up all the land

-- "Make kneaded bread thus. Wash your hands and trough well. Put

architecture of the grave -- and "carpenter" is but another name for

Oil, etc., eight months ................. 2.00

of the world -- were

style of architecture of his house than a tortoise with that of its

supposed that ornaments were something outward and in the skin

through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in

habitation in the town is supplied with the new and pure flame."

was wont to get smoked and to have a piny flavor, I tried flour

balancing a little grass which I did not raise. All things

an infant in the house where it was born, a silk parasol,

I think that the man is at a dead set who has got through a

God, is his private ail. Let this be righted, let the spring come

obliged to straighten with a plane.

unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a half of light and

Be sure that you give the poor the aid they most need, though it

man. There is nowhere recorded a simple and irrepressible

and works are a blessing to mankind. I do not value chiefly a mans

fashionable garments, till, one bitter cold day, one who had slipped

monsters that swarm all around him, while contemplating the monsters

T. CAREW

against the use of tobacco is, that I never chewed it, that is a

obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent

for three days, "and the four following days they receive visits and

their youth, for timber. It is difficult to begin without

to my senses a fragrance like that of other noble fruits, which I

to be fitting themselves for it; and for these oversights successive

hundred Howards to us, if their philanthropy do not help us in our

cow, or pig, as at present. I desire to speak impartially on this

Not long since I was present at the auction of a deacons

permitted still to squat, I might purchase one acre at the same

the Dijlah, or Tigris, will continue to flow through Bagdad after

generous companions without apology. My excuse for not lecturing

The dead and for the most part unmerchantable wood behind my house,

it may appear; all disease and failure helps to make me sad and does

merely, which makes them picturesque; and equally interesting will

might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that

made of the value of $4.50 -- the amount on hand much more than

is travelling with a great deal of baggage, trumpery which has

relinquish to them the pursuit. Some are "industrious," and appear

nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise

And when thou seest the new enlightened sphere,

ease, and not our disease, and take care that this does not spread

brick or stone, the prosperity of the farmer is still measured by

that I could easily raise my bushel or two of rye and Indian corn,

should travel together over the world, the one without money,

Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture

selling to nobody else meanwhile: I to take possession at six. It

as agreeable to the imagination, and there is as little straining

Jupiter hurled him headlong to the earth with a thunderbolt, and the

By the middle of April, for I made no haste in my work, but

COMPLEMENTAL VERSES

True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have

possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of

Sweet potatoes ........... 0.10

dressed by the village butcher.

and mothers. I once heard a reverend lecturer on England, a man of

proceeds of every tenth slave to buy a Sundays liberty for the

could not have accomplished works yet more worthy of himself in that

Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose

my carpet; and if he is sometimes too warm a friend, I find it still

but earnestly live it from beginning to end. How could youths

Brave, bounteous acts, regal magnificence,

board nails. If they cannot understand that, they cannot understand

with us. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of

using him for their own ends, no doubt, he cures himself of his

be cheaper to build the whole yourself than to convince another of

Lard ..................... 0.65

Flour .................... 0.88 Costs more than Indian meal,

pine boughs which I had cut off, and to my bread was imparted some

long. To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind

fruitful. "But," says one, "you do not mean that the students

inflexible, waiting for the sun to thaw them. On the 1st of April

warehouse. What man but a philosopher would not be ashamed to see

study of the ancient and indispensable art of bread-making,

they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of

mainly to become of more worth, and with kindness aforethought go

learning and intelligence, after enumerating her scientific,

condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of

Balcom, a promising young architect, designs it on the back of his

time, and set about some free labor.

nation that lived simply in all respects, that is, no nation of

which was very foggy, I heard a stray goose groping about over the

civilization which are barbaric and heathenish build splendid

good deal like that; I mean that they should not play life, or study

Broadway their Trinity Church? But a man has no more to do with the

to the woods and became a wild cat, and, as I learned afterward,

be so bold, what do you mean by a dead set?" If you are a seer,

wailing? Under what latitudes reside the heathen to whom we would

calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the

pay for themselves, and get their free papers. For myself I found

were a compost heap. The roof was the soundest part, though a good

lay the foundation themselves. The student who secures his coveted

me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it.

clothes, while I shivered in my more tidy and somewhat more

penalty which reformed tobacco-chewers have to pay; though there are

fills the mouth and nose and ears and eyes with dust till you are

trees which the Most High God has created lofty and umbrageous, they

of truth within the ornaments, that every sugarplum, in fact, might

embraces the populous Indian and Chinese villages; and thus, by a

come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with

in charity; maybe you should spend the nine tenths so, and done with

In all ............................ $ 36.78,

for this -- or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy

owner, but merely a squatter, and not expecting to cultivate so much

winters, as well as most of my summers, I had free and clear for

dinner, satisfactory on several accounts, simply off a dish of

furniture and all the trumpery which he saves and will not burn, and

Undoubtedly, in this case, what is true for one is truer still

bidding of any prince. Genius is not a retainer to any emperor, nor

equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners? One

become the devils attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word

natural an occupation as building his house. We belong to the

declined it, preferring to wipe my feet on the sod before my door.

Shiraz, that "they asked a wise man, saying: Of the many celebrated

there are very few halls for free worship or free speech in this

from an economic than a dietetic point of view, and he will not

freedom, as I could fare hard and yet succeed well, I did not wish

together, produces new fire in the public square, from whence every

which I required, about a third of an acre, and I learned from the

which with all the remaining grain and other old provisions they

without yeast might not be, and elderly people prophesied a speedy

independents. -- Fix not thy heart on that which is transitory; for

these things, and who know how to use them when acquired, I

the village, till at length one morning I forgot the rules, and

a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps

their professors. Much it concerns a man, forsooth, how a few

of speculation, and he employs Irishmen or other operatives actually

Hinges and screws ................ 0.14

the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives

and yet retain health and strength. I have made a satisfactory

And, Gorgon-like, turns active men to stone.

architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? I

not learn that the Indians ever troubled themselves to go after it.

Cato gave about two centuries before Christ. "Panem depsticium sic

domestic arrangements. But the dining out, being, as I have stated,

knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.

than I. They are destined, I trust, to assist at the raising of

myself in this respect, it is such a relief to both the moral and

not indispensable -- for my discoveries were not by the synthetic

unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive

indito, aquae paulatim addito, subigitoque pulchre. Ubi bene

but a constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he

care how they were done by, who loved their enemies after a new

diletta九九藏書ntism. A sentimental reformer in architecture, he began at

Vitruvius, with hard pencil and ruler, and the job is let out to

hoe-cakes, which I baked before my fire out of doors on a shingle or

life. The most interesting dwellings in this country, as the

of their fragrance, for my hands were covered with a thick coat of

appropriate produce, and appointed season, during the continuance of

The Mexicans also practised a similar purification at the end of

the other carrying a bill of exchange in his pocket. It was easy to

of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the

beside produce consumed and on hand at the time this estimate was

independence that, in Concord, fresh and sweet meal is rarely sold

here the greater part of the day. And so, if the railroad reached

period, but we would preserve the true course.

well-stocked larder.

carrying a bottleful in my pocket, which would sometimes pop and

-----------

though I held the plow myself. My farm outgoes for the first season

fathers or his mothers or his neighbors instead. The youth may

when he had kindled his fires up to the splendor of a moon or a star

though I lived there more than two years -- not counting potatoes, a

effects, for his life had not been ineffectual:--

Tartar would say -- and devour him, partly for experiments sake;

Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is

In all ...................... $28.12+

looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his

$25.21 3/4 on the one side -- this being very nearly the means with

originally inspired directly from Heaven to do thus, though they

"we can make liquor to sweeten our lips

United States Bank. It costs more than it comes to. The mainspring

living? Methinks this would exercise their minds as much as

the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces,

by his beneficence, had the suns chariot but one day, and drove out

that a few do all the exchange work with the oxen, or, in other

the glory of such with the ox and horse; does it follow that he

things enough I have chewed which I could lecture against. If you

in any winter. The sides were left shelving, and not stoned; but

architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence

and the driftwood from the pond, have supplied the remainder of my

------- on my back.

kept in as long as possible by wrapping them in cloths. I made a

are concerned about the monuments of the West and the East -- to

by the sound of my axe, and we chatted pleasantly over the chips

root is faith -- I am accustomed to answer such, that I can live on

there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive

"coffin-maker." One man says, in his despair or indifference to

he had all that to carry. If I have got to drag my trap, I will

ears of green sweet corn boiled, with the addition of salt? Even

keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for

square by seven deep, to a fine sand where potatoes would not freeze

There are left .................. $ 8.71+

Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently

evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who

profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the

I would observe, by the way, that it costs me nothing for

of today, notwithstanding the short time occupied by my experiment,

out that way lately. There was a stove, a bed, and a place to sit,

for the most part, dank, clammy, and aguish, only here a board and

Pork ..................... 0.22

man; for I think the fall from the farmer to the operative as great

send light? Who is that intemperate and brutal man whom we would

the whole curse of trade attaches to the business.

musky flavor, I saw that the longest use would not make that a good

refinement of this diet, and travelling gradually down in my studies

seeing the country and getting experience of that kind, I should

redeem? If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his

streets of heaven, and scorched the surface of the earth, and dried

one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his

the race of caliphs is extinct: if thy hand has plenty, be liberal

wait till that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they

whose shells they are, and not any peculiarity in their surfaces

but what that is, it is for my employer to find out. What good I

truthfulness, and nobleness, without ever a thought for the

month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the

tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion. If I knew for a

compact-looking man, seemingly free, all girded and ready, speak of

to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and

hogs the grain of his own producing, and buys flour, which is at

cottages of the poor commonly; it is the life of the inhabitants

japanned lamp. None is so poor that he need sit on a pumpkin. That

nearly two years after this, rye and Indian meal without yeast,

seem that I made it according to the recipe which Marcus Porcius

crooked one, every moment. Beside being better off than they

carefully feather-edged and lapped, so that it was perfectly

one shanty is poor, this is a dozen times as poor. Pray, for what

mills, may be alarmed.

Doing-good, that is one of the professions which are full.

more than enough. I got twelve bushels of beans, and eighteen

So that all the pecuniary outgoes, excepting for washing and

frying-pan, a dipper, a wash-bowl, two knives and forks, three

families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be

too, going about the world in his own orbit, doing it good, or

so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough

sand, which I claimed by squatters right. I have also a small

a fortnight to live on hard, raw corn on the ear, using his teeth

from July 4th to March 1st, the time when these estimates were made,

having taken medicine, and fasted for three days, all the fire in

pitch. Before I had done I was more the friend than the foe of the

much that I have to say. For my part, I am glad to bear of

decay of the vital forces. Yet I find it not to be an essential

knot-hole or gateway where his sledge load of furniture cannot

round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you; and as for

whom, as if his profession required it of him, he elevated to a

extent. To what end, pray, is so much stone hammered? In Arcadia,

better in print. The next year I sometimes caught a mess of fish

sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which

get. And to meet this I have for farm produce sold

in the shops, and hominy and corn in a still coarser form are hardly

fuel. This he assured me was the only encumbrance. At six I passed

love so well the philosophy of India. To meet the objections of

his contemporaries no charge is made. The mode of founding a

call none azad, or free, excepting the cypress, which bears no

were superior to any consolation which the missionaries could offer;

well if we were to celebrate such a "busk," or "feast of first

Nails ............................ 3.90

irretrievably.

man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer.

house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and

room, which is only a little larger than my own, is thirty dollars

under a cover," that is, in a baking kettle. Not a word about

by fifteen long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret and a closet, a

design of doing me good, I should run for my life, as from that dry

becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for

We should impart our courage, and not our despair, our health and

said, he heard the Chinese pots and kettles rattle; but I think that

used by any. For the most part the farmer gives to his cattle and

underlie, and one wall separate several apartments. But for my

finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is

an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint

peck of corn to mill.

might be a fit occasion for a visit to the seashore, or, if I did

thirty-two side by side and under one roof, and the occupant suffers

faith everywhere; if he has not faith, he will continue to live like

do with my furniture?" -- My gay butterfly is entangled in a

taste, and not merely his misfortune. If you give him money, he

him getting good. When Phaeton, wishing to prove his heavenly birth

sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was

crudity and is once more sweet and wholesome to live. I never

farmer said that it was "good for nothing but to raise cheeping

There is a certain class of unbelievers who sometimes ask me

fruit; what mystery is there in this? He replied, Each has its

-------

Laths ............................ 1.25

pumpkins or beets, and I knew that I needed only to set out a few

discharge its contents to my discomfiture. It is simpler and more

a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond-hole in order to

raising. I had already bought the shanty of James Collins, an

account. It appears from the above estimate, that my food alone

magnetic, or natural means, let us first be as simple and well as

India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to

from the farm was

I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can

the degree to which the barn overshadows the house. This town is

Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips."

from his point of view, but only a little better than the common

tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a

anything is professed and practised but the art of life; -- to

Oil and some household utensils ........ 2.00

Earned by day-labor .................... 13.34

at the devastation; there being a dearth of work, as he said. He

but though it afforded me a momentary enjoyment, notwithstanding a

of his own castoff griefs as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy.

Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and

functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even -- for that is the

Salt ..................... 0.03

be wafted over from him to me, and some ripeness flavor our

secured, a comfortable house for me as long as I choose to occupy

through that accidental souring of the dough which, it is supposed,

squirrels on." I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the

-- I will not engage that my neighbors shall pronounce it good -- I

their power of abstract thought, that nations should seek to

apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. It

intercourse. His goodness must not be a partial and transitory act,

have got my ornaments ready, I will wear them.

of life. Leaven, which some deem the soul of bread, the spiritus

deal warped and made brittle by the sun. Doorsill there was none,

yet fairly come out of the torpid state. It appeared to me that for

cast together into one common heap, and consume it with fire. After

ornaments take care of themselves. What reasonable man ever

to support one. The laborers day ends with the going down of the

leaves. Those plants of whose greenness withered we make herb tea

who would not know what to do with more leisure than they now enjoy,

him and his family on the road. One large bundle held their all --

It was but two hours work. I took particular pleasure in this

the shanties in the land, "is not this railroad which we have built

whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much

comfortably as I maintain myself, and have even ventured so far as

he slanted them and daubed it; but the spirit having departed out of

was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods,

can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances. Neither did I

necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his

eggs. They were a real cereal fruit which I ripened, and they had

Molasses ................. 1.73 Cheapest form of the