Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/355

 JET. 38.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 331

Brown come to Concord on Saturday, if the weather promises well, and spend the Sunday here on the river or hills, or both. So we shall save some of our money (which is of next impor tance to our souls), and lose I do not know what. You say you talked of coming here be fore ; now do it. I do not propose this because I think that I am worth your spending time with, but because I hope that we may prove flint and steel to one another. It is at most only an hour s ride farther, and you can at any rate do what you please when you get here.

Then we will see if we have any apology to offer for our existence. So come to Concord, come to Concord, come to Concord ! or your suit shall be defaulted.

As for the dispute about solitude and society, any comparison is impertinent. It is an idling down on the plain at the base of a mountain, in stead of climbing steadily to its top. Of course you will be glad of all the society you can get to go up with. Will you go to glory with me ? is the burden of the song. I love society so much that I swallowed it all at a gulp, that is, all that came in my way. It is not that we love to be alone, but that we love to soar, and when we do soar, the company grows thinner and thinner till there is none at all. It is either the Tribune 1 on

1 The New York newspaper.