Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/301

 JET. 37.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 277

any better, with its oratorios ? I have seen more men than usual, lately ; and, well as I was ac quainted with one, I am surprised to find what vulgar fellows they are. They do a little busi ness commonly each day, in order to pay their board, and then they congregate in sitting-rooms and feebly tabulate and paddle in the social slush ; and when I think that they have suffi ciently relaxed, and am prepared to see them steal away to their shrines, they go unashamed to their beds, and take 011 a new layer of sloth. They may be single, or have families in their faineancy. I do not meet men who can have nothing to do with me because they have so much to do with themselves. However, I trust that a very few cherish purposes which they never declare. Only think, for a moment, of a man about his affairs ! How we should respect him ! How glorious he would appear! Not working for any corporation, its agent, or president, but fulfilling the end of his being ! A man about his business would be the cynosure of all eyes.

The other evening I was determined that I would silence this shallow din ; that I would walk in various directions and see if there was not to be found any depth of silence around. As Bonaparte sent out his horsemen in the Red Sea on all sides to find shallow water, so I sent forth my mounted thoughts to find deep water.