; but then I
have the satisfaction of differing from the world as to the meaning of
idleness. A windmill twirling its arms all day is admirable only when
there is corn to grind. Twirling its arms for the mere barren pleasure
of twirling them, or for the sake of looking busy, does not deserve any
rapturous paean of praise. I must be made happy after my own fashion,
not after the fashion of other people. Here I can live as I please,
here I can throw the reins on the neck of my whim. Here I play with my
own thoughts; here I ripen for the grave.
ON THE WRITING OF ESSAYS
I have already described my environments and my mode of life, and out
of both I contrive to extract a very tolerable amount of satisfaction.
Love in a cottage, with a broken window to let in the rain, is not my
idea of comfort; no more is Dignity, walking forth richly clad, to whom
every head uncovers, every knee grows supple. Bruin in winter-time
fondly sucking his own paws, loses flesh; and love, feeding upon
itself, dies of inanition. Take the candle of death in your hand, and
walk through the stately galleries of the world, and their splendid
furniture and array are as the tinsel armour and pasteboard goblets of
a penny theatre; fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the
melancholy blazon on a coffin lid. We argue fiercely about happiness.
One insists that she is found in the cottage which the hawthorn shades.
Another that she is a lady of fashion, and treads on cloth of gold.
Wisdom, listening to both, shakes a white head, and considers that "a
good deal may be said on both sides."
There is a wise saying to the effect that "a man can eat no more than
he can hold." Every man gets about the same satisfaction out of life.
Mr. Suddlechops, the barber of Seven Dials, is as happy as Alexander at
the head of his legions. The business of the one is to depopulate
kingdoms, the business of the other to reap beards seven days old; but
their relative positions do not affect the question. The one works
with razors and soap-lather the other with battle-cries and
well-greaved Greeks. The one of a Saturday night counts up his shabby
gains and grumbles; the other on _his_ Saturday night sits down and
weeps for other worlds to conquer. The pence to Mr. Suddlechops are as
important as are the worlds to Alexander. Every condition of life has
its peculiar advantages, and wisdom points these out and is contented
with them. The varlet who
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