Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/13

Rh As the young pass out of childhood, that foretaste or symbol of the kingdom of heaven, the expression of serene innocence is too apt to fade from their faces and the clouds to gather there, while it is considered a matter of course that each one should attach himself to the social machine. One becomes a lawyer, another a clergyman, another a physician, another a merchant, and the treasure which the childlike soul has lost is sought to be regained in some general and far-off way by society at large. But the burden which men thus readily take upon themselves in the common race for comfort, luxury, and social position is out of all proportion to their spiritual vitality, and so the truest life of individuals is being continually sacrificed to the Juggernaut of society. Men associate almost universally in the shallower and falser part of their natures, so that while institutions may seem to flourish, corruption is also gaining ground through the spiritual failure of individuals; finally the fabric falls, and a new form rises to go through the same round. The highest form of civilization at the present day seems to be an advance upon all that have preceded it, though in some particulars it plainly falls behind. Perhaps only by this alternate rising and falling can the human race advance.