Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/147

 free and alert, a naked warrior. Civilization does not much more than dress men. It puts rings on the fingers and watches in the side-pocket.

What do inventors invent for the naked feet and hands? They often only mend the gloves and the shoes which they wear. They make cloth of a finer texture, but they do not toughen the skin.

So when the ancient bards come to narrative and description, they describe character only, not costume, which may change. They knew how to threaten; their threats might have deterred a man. Now there are no such things as vengeance and terror.

November 20.

When I remember the tumultuous popular joy of our cattle-show mobs, how they rushed hither and thither, with license and without license, with appetite for the huge delights of the day; now hastening with boisterous speed after the inspired negro, from whose larynx there issued a strain which made the very streets vibrate and curl like a banner, and the sky throb and palpitate with [99]