The windows of the almshouse 15 as brightly as from

the windows of the almshouse
15
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
16
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 reveals the heavenly lights. The shadows of
poverty and meanness gather around us, “and lo! creation widens to
our view.”
17
We are often reminded that if there were bestowed on us
the wealth of Croesus,
18
our aims must still be the same, and our
15. almshouse (OMZ hows) n . government-run home for people too poor to support
themselves.
16. garret (GAR iht) n . attic.
17. “and … view” from the sonnet “To Night” by the British poet Joseph Blanco White
(1775–1841).
18. Croesus (KREE suhs) King of Lydia (d. 546
b
.
c
. ), believed to be the wealthiest person of
his time.
15
16
from Walden 251
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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
19
on a higher. Superfluous wealth can
buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of
the soul. . . .
The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year
higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands;
even this may be the eventful year, which will drown out all our
muskrats. It was not always dry land where we dwell. I see far inland
the banks which the stream anciently washed, before science began to
record its freshets.