Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/221

 J5T.30.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 197

it, biiry it, unearth it, and gnaw it still. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. All fa bles, indeed, have their morals ; but the inno cent enjoy the story. Let nothing come between you and the light. Respect men and brothers only. When you travel to the Celestial City, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock, ask to see God, none of the servants. In what concerns you much, do not think that you have companions : know that you are alone in the world.

Thus I write at random. I need to see you, and I trust I shall, to correct my mistakes. Perhaps you have some oracles for me.

HENRY THOREAU.

TO HARRISON BLAKE (AT WORCESTER).

CONCORD, May 2, 1848.

&quot; We must have our bread.&quot; But what is our bread ? Is it baker s bread ? Methinks it should be very home-made bread. What is our meat? Is it butcher s meat? What is that which we must have ? Is that bread which we are now earning sweet ? Is it not bread which has been suffered to sour, and then been sweet ened with an alkali, which has undergone the vinous, acetous, and sometimes the putrid fer-