Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/288

 264 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1853,

do. To live a better life, this surely can be done. Dot and carry one. Wait not for a clear sight, for that you are to get. What you see clearly you may omit to do. Milton and Worces ter? It is all Blake, Blake. Never mind the rats in the wall : the cat will take care of them. All that men have said or are is a very faint rumor, and it is not worth the while to remem ber or refer to that. If you are to meet God, will you refer to anybody out of that court? How shall men know how I succeed, unless they are in at the life ? I did not see the &quot; Times &quot; reporter there.

Is it not delightful to provide one s self with the necessaries of life, to collect dry wood for the fire when the weather grows cool, or fruits when we grow hungry ? not till then. And then we have all the time left for thought !

Of what use were it, pray, to get a little wood to burn, to warm your body this cold weather, if there were not a divine fire kindled at the same time to warm your spirit ?

&quot; Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how poor a thing 1 is man ! &quot;

I cuddle up by my stove, and there I get up another fire which warms fire itself. Life is so short that it is not wise to take roundabout ways, nor can we spend much time in waiting. Is it absolutely necessary, then, that we should do as