Page:Anti-slavery and reform papers by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/144

 Life ivitJuut Principle, 133 thought. Shall the mind be a jDublic arena, where the atfairs of the street and the gossip of the tea-table chiefly are discussed ? Or shall ic be a quarter of heaven itself, — an hypiethral temple, consecrated to the service of the gods ? I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant, which only a divine mind could illustrate. Such is, for the most part, the news in newspapers and conversation.

It is important to preserve the mind's chastity in this respect. Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk pro- fanely through their very sanctum sandoricm for an hour, ay, for many hours ! to make a very bar-room of the mind^s inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us, — the very street itself, ^vith all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts' shrine ! ^V^ould it not be an intellectual and moral suicide ? When I have been compelled to sit spectator and auditor in a court room for some hours, and have seen my neighbors, who were not compelled, stealing in from time to time, aaid tiptoeing about with washed hands and faces, it has appeared to my mind's eye, that, when they took off their hats, their ears sud- denly expanded into vast hoppers for sound, between which even their narrow heads were crowded. Like the vanes of windmills, they caught the broad, but shallow stream of sound, which, after a few titillating: oryrations in their coggy brains, passed out the other side. I wondered if, when they got home, they were as careful to wash their ears as before their bands and faces. It has seemed to me, at such a time_, that the auditors and