Page:The writings of Henry David Thoreau, v2.djvu/164

 imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which he lived. One of his father's ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince. So soul," continues the Hindoo philosopher, "from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme." I perceive that we inhabitants of New England live this mean life that we do because our vision does not penetrate the surface of things.  We think that that is which appears to be.  If a man should walk through this town and see only the reality, where, think you, would the "Mill-dam" go to?  If he should give us an account of the realities he beheld there, we should not recognize the place in his description.  Look at a meeting-house, or a court-house, or a jail, or a shop, or a dwelling-house, and say what that thing really is before a true gaze, and they would all go to pieces in your account of them.  Men esteem truth remote, in the outskirts of the system, behind the farthest star, before Adam and after the last man.  In eternity there is indeed