ls the
heavenly lights. The shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us,
"and lo! creation widens to our view." We are often reminded that if
there were bestowed on us the wealth of Croesus, our aims must still
be the same, and our means essentially the same. Moreover, if you
are restricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy books and
newspapers, for instance, you are but confined to the most significant
and vital experiences; you are compelled to deal with the material which
yields the most sugar and the most starch. It is life near the bone
where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a trifler. No man
loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. Superfluous
wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one
necessary of the soul.

I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured
a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there
reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise
of my contemporaries. My neighbors tell me of their adventures
with famous gentlemen and ladies, what notabilities they met at the
dinner-table; but I am no more interested in such things than in the
contents of the Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are about
costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a goose still, dress it
as you will. They tell me of California and Texas, of England and the
Indies, of the Hon. Mr.---of Georgia or of Massachusetts, all transient
and fleeting phenomena, till I am ready to leap from their court-yard
like the Mameluke bey. I delight to come to my bearings--not walk in
procession with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but to walk
even with the Builder of the universe, if I may--not to live in this
restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but stand or
sit thoughtfully while it goes by. What are men celebrating? They are
all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from
somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his
orator. I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most
strongly and rightfully attracts me--not hang by the beam of the scale
and try to weigh less--not suppose a case, but take the case that is; to
travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. It
affords me no satisfaction to commerce to spring an arch before I have
got a solid foundation. Let us not play at kittly-benders. The