l was pure, and his art was pure;
how could the result be other than wonderful?

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as
the truth. This alone wears well. For the most part, we are not where
we are, but in a false position. Through an infinity of our natures, we
suppose a case, and put ourselves into it, and hence are in two cases at
the same time, and it is doubly difficult to get out. In sane moments we
regard only the facts, the case that is. Say what you have to say, not
what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe. Tom Hyde, the
tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say.
"Tell the tailors," said he, "to remember to make a knot in their thread
before they take the first stitch." His companion's prayer is forgotten.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call
it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you
are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love
your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling,
glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from
the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode;
the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see
but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering
thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the
most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough
to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being
supported by the town; but it oftener happens that they are not
above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more
disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not
trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends.
Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell
your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want
society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a
spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts
about me. The philosopher said: "From an army of three divisions one
can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the
most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought." Do not seek so
anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to
be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness revea