Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/235

 JET. 32.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 211

tributes in his degree to creation : he breathes a divine perfume, he hears wonderful things. Di vine forms traverse him without tearing him, and, united to the nature which is proper to him, he goes, he acts as animating original matter.&quot;

To some extent, and at rare intervals, even I am a yogi.

I know little about the affairs of Turkey, but I am sure that I know something about bar berries and chestnuts, of which I have collected a store this fall. When I go to see my neigh bor, he will formally communicate to me the latest news from Turkey, which he read in yesterday s mail, &quot; Now Turkey by this time looks determined, and Lord Palmer ston &quot; Why, I would rather talk of the bran, which, unfortunately, was sifted out of my bread this morning, and thrown away. It is a fact which lies nearer to me. The newspaper gossip with which our hosts abuse our ears is as far from a true hospitality as the viands which they set before us. We did not need them to feed our bodies, and the news can be bought for a penny. We want the inevitable news, be it sad or cheer ing, wherefore and by what means they are ex tant this new day. If they are well, let them whistle and dance ; if they are dyspeptic, it is their duty to complain, that so they may in any case be entertaining. If words were invented