Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/287

 aet. 35.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 263

wanted him, --some divine boy in the upper pastures.

Well, if there really is another such a meteor sojourning in these spaces, I would like to ask you if you know whose estate this is that we are on ? For my part I enjoy it well enough, what with the wild apples and the scenery ; but I shouldn't wonder if the owner set his dog on me next. I could remember something not much to the purpose, probably ; but if I stick to what I do know, then --

It is worth the while to live respectably unto ourselves. We can possibly get along with a neighbor, even with a bedfellow, whom we re- spect but very little ; but as soon as it comes to this, that we do not respect ourselves, then we do not get along at all, no matter how much money we are paid for halting. There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfac torily to myself ; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life. It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are, if indeed you cannot get it above them, than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

Once you were in Milton1 doubting what to

1 A town near Boston.