Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/401

 2ET.40.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 375

body with it, if it lives. Just as awful really, and as glorious, is your garden. See how I can. play with my fingers! They are the funniest companions I have ever found. Where did they come from ? What strange control I have over them ! Who am I ? What are they ? those little peaks call them Madison, Jefferson, La fayette. What is the matter ? My fingers ten, I say. Why, erelong, they may form the top most crystal of Mount Washington. I go up there to see my body s cousins. There are some fingers, toes, bowels, etc., that I take an interest in, and therefore I am interested in all their relations.

Let me suggest a theme for you : to state to yourself precisely and completely what that walk over the mountains amounted to for you, re turning to this essay again and again, until you are satisfied that all that was important in your experience is in it. Give this good reason to yourself for having gone over the mountains, for mankind is ever going over a mountain. Don t suppose that you can tell it precisely the first dozen times you try, but at em again, especially when, after a sufficient pause, you suspect that you are touching the heart or summit of the mat ter, reiterate your blows there, and account for the mountain to yourself. Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to