Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/161

 from one who has been our friend, we separate with content, without grief, as gently and naturally as night passes into day. But grief and pain take place when the separation is partial and transient, when there is a lingering sympathy.

From this high discourse of Love, Marriage, and Friendship, the exact date of which in its final form cannot well be determined, but probably just before the publication of The Week in 1849, we pass now to an essay in a lighter mood, which Thoreau himself, in the Manuscript before me, entitles,— CONVERSATION

Talking is very singular. Men and women get together and then talk. They cannot even stay long together without talking, according to the rules of polite society. Not that they communicate what they have to say, or do anything natural or important to be done; but by common consent they fall [113]