om the cobbler's, I was seized and put into
jail, because, as I have elsewhere related, I did not pay a tax to, or
recognize the authority of, the State which buys and sells men, women,
and children, like cattle, at the door of its senate-house. I had gone
down to the woods for other purposes. But, wherever a man goes, men
will pursue and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can,
constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society. It is
true, I might have resisted forcibly with more or less effect, might
have run "amok" against society; but I preferred that society should run
"amok" against me, it being the desperate party. However, I was released
the next day, obtained my mended shoe, and returned to the woods in
season to get my dinner of huckleberries on Fair Haven Hill. I was never
molested by any person but those who represented the State. I had no
lock nor bolt but for the desk which held my papers, not even a nail
to put over my latch or windows. I never fastened my door night or day,
though I was to be absent several days; not even when the next fall
I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. And yet my house was more
respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers. The
tired rambler could rest and warm himself by my fire, the literary amuse
himself with the few books on my table, or the curious, by opening my
closet door, see what was left of my dinner, and what prospect I had of
a supper. Yet, though many people of every class came this way to the
pond, I suffered no serious inconvenience from these sources, and I
never missed anything but one small book, a volume of Homer, which
perhaps was improperly gilded, and this I trust a soldier of our camp
has found by this time. I am convinced, that if all men were to live as
simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take
place only in communities where some have got more than is sufficient
while others have not enough. The Pope's Homers would soon get properly
distributed.

"Nec bella fuerunt,
Faginus astabat dum scyphus ante dapes."
"Nor wars did men molest,
When only beechen bowls were in request."

"You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ
punishments? Love virtue, and the people will be virtuous. The virtues
of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are
like the grass--I the grass, whe