Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/444

 418 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1860,

If you take this life to be simply what old religious folks pretend (I mean the effete, gone to seed in a drought, mere human galls stung by the devil once), then all your joy and seren ity is reduced to grinning and bearing it. The fact is, you have got to take the world on your shoulders like Atlas, and &quot; put along &quot; with it. You will do this for an idea s sake, and your success will be in proportion to your devotion to ideas. It may make your back ache occasion ally, but you will have the satisfaction of hang ing it or twirling it to suit yourself. Cowards suffer, heroes enjoy. After a long day s walk with it, pitch it into a hollow place, sit down and eat your luncheon. Unexpectedly, by some immortal thoughts, you will be compensated. The bank whereon you sit will be a fragrant and flowery one, and your world in the hollow a sleek and light gazelle.

Where is the &quot; unexplored land &quot; but in our own untried enterprises ? To an adventurous spirit any place London, New York, Worces ter, or his own yard is &quot; unexplored land,&quot; to seek which Fremont and Kane travel so far. To a sluggish and defeated spirit even the Great Basin and the Polaris are trivial places. If they can get there (and, indeed, they are there now), they will want to sleep, and give it up, just as they always do. These are the regions of the