Page:Anti-slavery and reform papers by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/142

 Life zvithout Principle. 131 extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this lono: while.

I do not know but it is too much to read one news- paper a week. I have tried it recently, and for so long it seems to me that I have not dwelt in mv native region. The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me. You cannot serve two masters. It re- quires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a da v.

We may well be ashamed to tell what things we have read or heard in our day. I do not know why my news should be so trivial, — considering what one's dreams and expectations are, why the developments should be so paltry. The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition. You are often tempted to ask, why such stress is laid on a par- ticular experience which you have had, — that, after twenty- five years, you should meet Hobbins, Registrar of Deeds, again on the sidewalk. Have you not budged an inch, then ? Such is the daily news. Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere, insignificant as the sporules of fungi, and impinge on some neglected tJiallus, or sur- face of our minds, which affords a basis for them, and hence a parasitic growth. We should wash ourselves clean of such news. Of what consequence, though our planet explode, if there is no character involved in the explosion ? In health we have not the least curiosity about such events. We do not live for idle amusement.

I would not run round a corner to see the world blow up.

All summer, and far into the autumn, perchance, you unconsciously went by the newspcipers and the news.