Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/188

 cast more and more into the centre. "Although friendship between good men is interrupted, still their principles remain unaltered. The stalk of the lotus may be broken, and the fibres remain connected." Persons are only the vessels which contain the nectar, and the hydrostatic paradox is the symbol of Love's law. Love finds its level and rises to its fountain-head in all breasts, and its slenderest column balances the ocean.—

Friends are indeed the ancient and honorable of the earth, for this especially is a natural and durable league.

Because I stand aloof from politics, and devote myself to the search after truth, let me not be accused of a want of patriotism, or of indifference to my country. "On the contrary," as Anaxagoras replied in a like case, pointing to the heavens, "I esteem it infinitely." My country is free!

The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to—for I will [136]