Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/201

 JET. 30.] TO R. W. EMERSON. 177

they are the shortest, on that universal theme, yours as well as mine, and several other peo ple s :

The good how can we trust !

Only the wise are just.

The good, we use,

The wise we cannot choose ;

These there are none above.

The good, they know and love,

But are not known again

By those of lesser ken.

They do not choose us with their eyes,

But they transfix with their advice ;

No partial sympathy they feel

With private woe or private weal,

But with the universe joy and sigh,

Whose knowledge is their sympathy.

Good-night. HENRY THOREAU.

P. S. I am sorry to send such a medley as this to you. I have forwarded Lane s &quot; Dial &quot; to Munroe, and he tells the expressman that all is right.

TO R. W. EMERSON (iN ENGLAND).

CONCORD, January 12, 1848.

It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the Eng lish dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland