Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/330

 306 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1855,

a man of very simple tastes, notwithstanding his wealth ; a lover of nature ; but, above all, singu larly frank and plain-spoken. I think that you might enjoy meeting him.

Sincerity is a great but rare virtue, and we pardon to it much complaining, and the betrayal of many weaknesses. R. says of himself, that he sometimes thinks that he has all the infirm ities of genius without the genius ; is wretched without a hair-pillow, etc. ; expresses a great and awful uncertainty with regard to &quot; God,&quot; &quot; Death,&quot; his &quot; immortality ; &quot; says, &quot; If I only knew,&quot; etc. He loves Cowper s &quot; Task &quot; better than anything else ; and thereafter, perhaps, Thomson, Gray, and even Howitt. He has evi dently suffered for want of sympathizing com panions. He says that he sympathizes with much in my books, but much in them is naught to him, &quot; namby-pamby,&quot; &quot; stuff,&quot; &quot; mys tical.&quot; Why will not I, having common sense, write in plain English always; teach men in detail how to live a simpler life, etc. ; not go off

into ? But I say that I have no scheme

about it, no designs on men at all ; and, if I had, my mode would be to tempt them with the fruit, and not with the manure. To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray ? That I may teach others to simplify their lives ? and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic