Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/249

 J5T.33.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 225

edly, but not much to any other that he has made.

Would it not be worth while to discover na ture in Milton ? be native to the universe ? I, too, love Concord best, but I am glad when I discover, in oceans and wildernesses far away, the material of a million Concords : indeed, I am lost, unless I discover them. I see less differ ence between a city and a swamp than formerly. It is a swamp, however, too dismal and dreary even for me, and I should be glad if there were fewer owls, and frogs, and mosquitoes in it. I prefer ever a more cultivated place, free from miasma and crocodiles. I am so sophisticated, and I will take my choice.

As for missing friends, what if we do miss one another? have we not agreed on a rendez vous ? While each wanders his own way through the wood, without anxiety, ay, with serene joy, though it be on his hands and knees, over rocks and fallen trees, he cannot but be in the right way. There is no wrong way to him. How can he be said to miss his friend, whom the fruits still nourish and the elements sustain ? A man who missed his friend at a turn, went on buoyantly, dividing the friendly air, and hum ming a tune to himself, ever and anon kneeling with delight to study each little lichen in his path, and scarcely made three miles a day for