Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/240

 216 GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT. [1850,

a-framing or amending of a constitution going on, which I suspect there is, I desire to see the morning papers. I am greedy of the faintest rumor, though it were got by listening at the key-hole. I will dissipate myself in that direc tion.

I am glad to know that you find what I have said on Friendship worthy of attention. I wish I could have the benefit of your criticism; it would be a rare help to me. Will you not communicate it ?

TO HARRISON BLAKE (AT MILTON).

CONCORD, May 28, 1850.

MR. BLAKE, &quot;I never found any content ment in the life which the newspapers record,&quot; anything of more value than the cent which they cost. Contentment in being covered with dust an inch deep ! We who walk the streets, and hold time together, are but the refuse of ourselves, and that life is for the shells of us, of our body and our mind, for our scurf, a thoroughly scurvy life. It is coffee made of coffee-grounds the twentieth time, which was only coffee the first time, while the living water leaps and sparkles by our doors. I know some who, in their charity, give their coffee- grounds to the poor ! We, demanding news, and putting up with such news ! Is it a new