Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/294

280, is only a retreat to one's self and reliance on one's own strength. In trivial circumstances I find myself sufficient to myself, and in the most momentous, I have no ally but myself, and must silently put by their harm by my own strength, as I did with the former. As my own hand bent aside the willow in my path, so must my single arm put to flight the devil and his angels. God is not our ally when we shrink, and neuter when we are bold. When you trust, do not lay aside your armor, but put it on and buckle it tighter. If by reliance on the gods I have disbanded one of my forces, then was it poor policy. There is more of God and divine help in a man's little finger than in idle prayer and trust.

The best and bravest deed is that which the whole man, heart, lungs, hands, fingers, and toes at any time prompt. Each hanger-on in the purlieus of the camp must fall into the line of march. If a single sutler delay to make up his pack, then suspect the fates and consult the oracles again. This is the meaning of integrity; this it is to be an integer, and not a fraction. Be even for all virtuous ends, but odd for all vice.

Friends will have to be introduced each time they meet. They will be eternally strange to one another, and when they have mutually