Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/460

 434 FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS. [1861,

or near ; how good, above all mere sentimental, warm-blooded, short-lived, soft-hearted, moral goodness, commonly so-called. Give me the goodness which has forgotten its own deeds, which God has seen to be good, and let be. None of your just made perfect, pickled eels ! All that will save them will be their picturesqueness, as with blasted trees. Whatever is, and is not ashamed to be, is good. I value no moral good ness or greatness unless it is good or great, even as that snowy peak is. Pray, how could thirty feet of bowels improve it? Nature is goodness crystallized. You looked into the land of prom ise. Whatever beauty we behold, the more it is distant, serene, and cold, the purer and more dur able it is. It is better to warm ourselves with ice than with fire.

Tell Brown that he sent me more than the price of the book, viz., a word from himself, for which I am greatly his debtor.

TO DANIEL RICKETSON (AT NEW BEDFORD).

CONCORD, March 22, 1861.

FKIEND KICKETSON, The bluebird was here the 26th of February, at least, which is one day earlier than you date; but I have not heard of larks nor pigeon-woodpeckers. To tell the truth, I am not on the alert for the signs of spring, not having had any winter yet. I took