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                            Conclusion



    To the sick the doctors wisely recommend a change of air and

scenery。  Thank Heaven; here is not all the world。  The buckeye does

not grow in New England; and the mockingbird is rarely heard here。

The wild goose is more of a cosmopolite than we; he breaks his fast

in Canada; takes a luncheon in the Ohio; and plumes himself for the

night in a southern bayou。  Even the bison; to some extent; keeps

pace with the seasons cropping the pastures of the Colorado only

till a greener and sweeter grass awaits him by the Yellowstone。  Yet

we think that if rail fences are pulled down; and stone walls piled

up on our farms; bounds are henceforth set to our lives and our

fates decided。  If you are chosen town clerk; forsooth; you cannot

go to Tierra del Fuego this summer: but you may go to the land of

infernal fire nevertheless。  The universe is wider than our views of

it。

    Yet we should oftener look over the tafferel of our craft; like

curious passengers; and not make the voyage like stupid sailors

picking oakum。  The other side of the globe is but the home of our

correspondent。  Our voyaging is only great…circle sailing; and the

doctors prescribe for diseases of the skin merely。  One hastens to

southern Africa to chase the giraffe; but surely that is not the

game he would be after。  How long; pray; would a man hunt giraffes

if he could?  Snipes and woodcocks also may afford rare sport; but I

trust it would be nobler game to shoot one's self。



          〃Direct your eye right inward; and you'll find

           A thousand regions in your mind

           Yet undiscovered。  Travel them; and be

           Expert in home…cosmography。〃



What does Africa  what does the West stand for?  Is not our own

interior white on the chart? black though it may prove; like the

coast; when discovered。  Is it the source of the Nile; or the Niger;

or the Mississippi; or a Northwest Passage around this continent;

that we would find?  Are these the problems which most concern

mankind?  Is Franklin the only man who is lost; that his wife should

be so earnest to find him?  Does Mr。 Grinnell know where he himself

is?  Be rather the Mungo Park; the Lewis and Clark and Frobisher; of

your own streams and oceans; explore your own higher latitudes 

with shiploads of preserved meats to support you; if they be

necessary; and pile the empty cans sky…high for a sign。  Were

preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely?  Nay; be a

Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you; opening new

channels; not of trade; but of thought。  Every man is the lord of a

realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty

state; a hummock left by the ice。  Yet some can be patriotic who

have no self…respect; and sacrifice the greater to the less。  They

love the soil which makes their graves; but have no sympathy with

the spirit which may still animate their clay。  Patriotism is a

maggot in their heads。  What was the meaning of that South…Sea

Exploring Expedition; with all its parade and expense; but an

indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas

in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet; yet

unexplored by him; but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles

through cold and storm and cannibals; in a government ship; with

five hundred men and boys to assist one; than it is to explore the

private sea; the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone。



          〃Erret; et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos。

           Plus habet hic vitae; plus habet ille viae。〃



    Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians。

    I have more of God; they more of the road。



It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in

Zanzibar。  Yet do this even till you can do better; and you may

perhaps find some 〃Symmes' Hole〃 by which to get at the inside at

last。  England and France; Spain and Portugal; Gold Coast and Slave

Coast; all front on this private sea; but no bark from them has

ventured out of sight of land; though it is without doubt the direct

way to India。  If you would learn to speak all tongues and conform

to the customs of all nations; if you would travel farther than all

travellers; be naturalized in all climes; and cause the Sphinx to

dash her head against a stone; even obey the precept of the old

philosopher; and Explore thyself。  Herein are demanded the eye and

the nerve。  Only the defeated and deserters go to the wars; cowards

that run away and enlist。  Start now on that farthest western way;

which does not pause at the Mississippi or the Pacific; nor conduct

toward a wornout China or Japan; but leads on direct; a tangent to

this sphere; summer and winter; day and night; sun down; moon down;

and at last earth down too。

    It is said that Mirabeau took to highway robbery 〃to ascertain

what degree of resolution was necessary in order to place one's self

in formal opposition to the most sacred laws of society。〃  He

declared that 〃a soldier who fights in the ranks does not require

half so much courage as a footpad〃  〃that honor and religion have

never stood in the way of a well…considered and a firm resolve。〃

This was manly; as the world goes; and yet it was idle; if not

desperate。  A saner man would have found himself often enough 〃in

formal opposition〃 to what are deemed 〃the most sacred laws of

society;〃 through obedience to yet more sacred laws; and so have

tested his resolution without going out of his way。  It is not for a

man to put himself in such an attitude to society; but to maintain

himself in whatever attitude he find himself through obedience to

the laws of his being; which will never be one of opposition to a

just government; if he should chance to meet with such。

    I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there。  Perhaps

it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live; and could not

spare any more time for that one。  It is remarkable how easily and

insensibly we fall into a particular route; and make a beaten track

for ourselves。  I had not lived there a week before my feet wore a

path from my door to the pond…side; and though it is five or six

years since I trod it; it is still quite distinct。  It is true; I

fear; that others may have fallen into it; and so helped to keep it

open。  The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet

of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels。  How worn and

dusty; then; must be the highways of the world; how deep the ruts of

tradition and conformity!  I did not wish to take a cabin passage;

but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world; for

there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains。  I do not

wish to go below now。

    I learned this; at least; by my experiment: that if one advances

confidently in the direction of his dreams; and endeavors to live

the life which he has imagined; he will meet with a success

unexpected in common hours。  He will put some things behind; will

pass an invisible boundary; new; universal; and more liberal laws

will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old

laws be expanded; and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal

sense; and he will live with the license of a higher order of

beings。  In proportion as he simplifies his life; the laws of the

universe will appear less complex; and solitude will not be

solitude; nor poverty poverty; nor weakness weakness。  If you have

built castles in the air; your work need not be lost; that is where

they should be。  Now put the foundations under them。

    It is a ridiculous demand which England and America make; that

you shall speak so that they can understand you。  Neither men nor

toadstools grow so。  As if that were important; and there were not

enough to understand you without them。  As if Nature could support

but one order of understandings; could not sustain birds as well 

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