At a certain season of our life omed to consider

    every spot as te of a hus surveyed

    try on every side hin a dozen miles of where I live.  In

    imagination I  all the farms in succession, for all were

    to be bougheir price.  I walked over each farmers

    premises, tasted h him,

    took   any price, mortgaging it to him in my

    mind; even put a  -- took everyt a deed of

    it -- took o talk --

    cultivated it, and oo to some extent, I trust, and hdrew

    on.  this

    experience entitled me to be regarded as a sort of real-estate

    broker by my friends.  , t live, and the

    landscape radiated from me accordingly.   is a  a

    sedes, a seat? -- better if a country seat.  I discovered many a

    site for a  likely to be soon improved, w

    too far from t to my eyes the village

    oo far from it.  ell, t live, I said; and there I

    did live, for an er life; saw how I could

    let t ter the spring

    come in.  ture inants of they may

    place t ticipated.  An

    afternoon sufficed to lay out to orc, and

    pasture, and to decide o

    stand before ted tree could be seen to

    t advantage; and t it lie, fallow, perchance, for a

    man is ricion to things which he can

    afford to let alone.

    My imagination carried me so far t I even he refusal of

    several farms -- ted -- but I never got my

    fingers burned by actual possession.  t t I came to

    actual possession he hollowell place, and had

    begun to sort my seeds, and collected materials o make a

    on or off  before the owner gave me

    a deed of it, his wife -- every man has such a wife -- changed her

    mind and , and en dollars to release

    o speak trut ten cents in the world, and

    it surpassed my aritic to tell, if I  man wen

    cents, or ogether.  however,

    I let en dollars and too, for I had carried

    it far enougo be generous, I sold he farm for

    just , and, as  a rich man, made him a

    present of ten dollars, and still en cents, and seeds, and

    materials for a  I had been a

    ric any damage to my poverty.  But I retained the

    landscape, and I  it yielded

    a o landscapes,

    quot;I am monarch of all I survey,

    My rigo dispute.quot;

    I ly seen a poet

    valuable part of a farm,  he

    a fe for

    many years w   admirable

    kind of invisible fence, , milked it, skimmed

    it, and got all t the skimmed

    milk.

    ttractions of to me, s

    complete retirement, being, about the village, half a

    mile from t neiged from the highway by a

    broad field; its bounding on the owner said

    protected it by its fogs from frosts in t was

    noto me; tate of the house and

    barn, and ted fences, ween

    me and t occupant; trees,

    nas, s kind of neig

    above all, tion I  from my earliest voyages up

    the house was concealed behind a dense grove of red

    maples, te to

    buy it, before tor finisting out some rocks,

    cutting dorees, and grubbing up some young

    bircure, or, in s, had made

    any more of s.  to enjoy tages I was ready

    to carry it on; like Atlas, to take the world on my shoulders -- I

    never  compensation  -- and do all

    tive or excuse but t I might

    pay for it and be unmolested in my possession of it; for I knew all

    t it  abundant crop of the kind I

    ed, if I could only afford to let it alone.  But it turned out

    as I have said.

    All t I could say, t to farming on a large

    scale -- I ivated a garden --  I had had my

    seeds ready.  Many t seeds improve h age.  I have no

    doubt t time discriminates bethe bad; and when

    at last I s, I so be disappointed.

    But I o my fellows, once for all, As long as possible

    live free and uncommitted.  It makes but little difference wher

    you are committed to a farm or ty jail.

    Old Cato, icaquot; is my quot;Cultivator,quot; says -- and

    translation I he passage

    -- quot;ting a farm turn it t

    to buy greedily; nor spare your pains to look at it, and do not

    t enougo go round it once.  tener you go the

    more it  is good.quot;  I t buy

    greedily, but go round and round it as long as I live, and be buried

    in it first, t it may please me t last.

    t  experiment of this kind, which I purpose

    to describe more at lengtting the experience

    of to one.  As I  propose to e an

    ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as cicleer in the

    morning, standing on , if only to wake my neighbors up.

    I took up my abode in t is, began to

    spend my nig, was on

    Independence Day, or t

    finiser, but  the rain,

    plastering or che walls being of rough,

    ained boards,  cool at

    nig we uds and freshly planed door and

    a clean and airy look, especially in the

    morning, imbers urated  I fancied

    t by noon some s gum o my

    imagination it retained t this

    auroral cer, reminding me of a certain ain

    ered

    cabin, fit to entertain a travelling god, and w

    trail s.  the winds which passed over my dwelling were

    sucains, bearing the broken

    strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music.  the morning

    ion is uninterrupted; but few

    are t .  Olympus is but tside of th

    everywhere.

    t a

    boat, ent, which I used occasionally when making excursions

    in till rolled up in my garret; but the

    boat, after passing from o ream of

    time.  itantial ser about me, I had made some

    progress totling in tly

    clad,  of crystallization around me, and reacted on the

    builder.  It ive someure in outlines.  I

    did not need to go outdoors to take tmosphere

    none of its fres  so muchin

    doors as be, even in t her.

    t;An abode  birds is like a meat

    seasoning.quot;  Suc my abode, for I found myself suddenly

    neigo t by  having

    caged myself near t only nearer to some of those

    to those

    smaller and more ters of t which never, or

    rarely, serenade a villager -- the

    scarlet tanager, the whip-poor-will, and many

    others.

    I ed by t a mile and a

    , in

    t of an extensive  town and Lincoln, and

    about t our only field knoo fame, Concord

    Battle Ground; but I  te

    s, covered h wood, was my

    most distant  week, w on

    t impressed me like a tarn he side of a

    mountain, its bottom far above ther lakes, and, as

    t ts nig,

    and s soft ripples or its smooth

    reflecting surface was revealed, ws, like gs, were

    stealtion into t the

    breaking up of some nocturnal conventicle.  to

    rees later into the sides

    of mountains.

    t value as a neigervals

    of a gentle rain-storm in August, wer being

    perfectly still, but t, mid-afternoon he

    serenity of evening, and thrush sang around, and was heard

    from so s

    sucime; and tion of t being,

    ser, full of light and

    reflections, becomes a lower self so muche more

    important.  From a op near by, whe wood had been

    recently cut off, ta southe

    pond, tation in the shore

    te sides sloping toward eacher

    suggested a stream flo in t direction through a wooded

    valley, but stream t ween and

    over to some distant and he

    inged anding on tiptoe I could

    catcill bluer and more

    distant mountain ranges in t, true-blue coins from

    , and also of some portion of t in

    otions, even from t, I could not see over or

    beyond t is o er

    in your neigo give buoyancy to and float th.  One

    value even of t   you

    see t eart continent but insular.  tant

    as t it keeps butter cool.  he pond from

    toime of flood I

    distinguised perhing valley,

    like a coin in a basin, all the pond appeared like

    a t insulated and floated even by t of

    interverting er, and I  t

    dry land.

    till more contracted, I did

    not feel cro.  ture enough

    for my imagination.  teau to we

    sretco and the

    steppes of tartary, affording ample room for all the roving families

    of men.  quot;t beings who enjoy

    freely a vast ; -- said Damodara, when his herds required new

    and larger pastures.

    Botime o those

    parts of to tory w

    attracted me.  here I lived was as far off as many a region viewed

    nigronomers.  e are  to imagine rare and delectable

    places in some remote and more celestial corner of tem,

    beellation of Cassiopeias Chair, far from noise and

    disturbance.  I discovered t my ually s site in

    suc forever ne of the

    universe.  If it o settle in ts near

    to to Aldebaran or Altair, then I was

    really t an equal remoteness from the life which I had

    left beo my nearest

    neigo be seen only in moonless nights by him.  Such was

    t part of creation wted;

    quot;t did live,

    And s as high

    As s whereon his flocks

    Did ;

    she shepherds life if his flocks always

    o ures ts?

    Every morning ion to make my life of equal

    simplicity, and I may say innocence, ure herself.  I have

    been as sincere a wors up

    early and bat was a religious exercise, and one

    of t t cers were

    engraven on tub of King tco t:

    quot;Reneely eac again, and again, and

    forever again.quot;  I can understand t.  Morning brings back the

    ed by t o

    making its invisible and unimaginable tour tment at

    earliest daing h door and windows open, as I

    could be by any trumpet t ever sang of fame.  It was homers

    requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey in ts own

    it; a

    standing advertisement, till forbidden, of ting vigor and

    fertility of t memorable

    season of t

    somnolence in us; and for an  least, some part of us awakes

    .  Little is to be

    expected of t day, if it can be called a day, to w

    a by the mechanical nudgings of some

    servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and

    aspirations from ions of celestial

    music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling the air --

    to a he darkness

    bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less t.

    t man  eacains an earlier,

    more sacred, and auroral  profaned, has

    despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way.

    After a partial cessation of he soul of man, or

    its organs rated eacries

    again  can make.  All memorable events, I should

    say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphe

    Vedas say, quot;All intelligences a;  Poetry and

    art, and t and most memorable of tions of men, date

    from sucs and he

    c t sunrise.  to him whose

    elastic and vigorous t keeps pace he day is a

    perpetual morning.  It matters not he

    attitudes and labors of men.  Morning is where

    is a da to throw off sleep.

    t men give so poor an account of they have

    not been slumbering?  t sucors.  If they

    been overcome hey would have performed

    somet

    only one in a million is aellectual

    exertion, only one in a o a poetic or divine life.

    to be ao be alive.  I  met a man who was

    quite awake.  he face?

    e must learn to rea by

    mec by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which

    does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.  I know of no more

    encouraging fact tionable ability of man to elevate

    is someto be able to

    paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a

    fes beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and

    paint tmosphrough which we look, which

    morally o affect ty of t is the

    of arts.  Every man is tasked to make s

    details, emplation of  elevated and

    critical ry

    information as , tinctly inform us how

    t be done.

    I  to to live deliberately, to

    front only tial facts of life, and see if I could not learn

    o teac,  I

    lived.  I did not  life, living is

    so dear; nor did I ise resignation, unless it e

    necessary.  I ed to live deep and suck out all the marrow of

    life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all

    t  life, to cut a broad so drive

    life into a corner, and reduce it to its lo terms, and, if it

    proved to be mean,  the whole and genuine meanness of

    it, and publiss meanness to t o

    kno by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in

    my next excursion.  For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange

    uncertainty about it, he devil or of God, and have

    some it is to

    quot;glorify God and enjoy ;

    Still s; tells us t

    we were long ago co men; like pygmies we figh

    cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best

    virtue s occasion a superfluous and evitable chedness.

    Our life is frittered aail.  An  man has hardly need

    to count more ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add

    en toes, and lump t.  Simplicity, simplicity,

    simplicity!  I say, let your affairs be as t a

    ead of a million count half a dozen, and

    keep your accounts on your t of this

    corms and

    quicksands and tems to be allo a man

    o live, if  founder and go to ttom and not

    make  at all, by dead reckoning, and  be a great

    calculator indeed wead of

    t be necessary eat but one; instead of a

    ion.  Our

    life is like a German Confederacy, made up of petty states, s

    boundary forever fluctuating, so t even a German cannot tell you

    is bounded at any moment.  tion itself, s

    so-called internal improvements, wernal

    and superficial, is just such an unwieldy and overgrown

    establis, cluttered ure and tripped up by its own

    traps, ruined by luxury and  of calculation

    and a he

    only cure for it, as for tern and

    more tan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose.  It

    lives too fast.  Men t it is essential t tion have

    commerce, and export ice, and talk telegraph, and ride

    ty miles an  a doubt,

    wtle

    uncertain.  If  get out sleepers, and forge rails, and

    devote days and nigo t go to tinkering upon our

    lives to improve them, who will build railroads?  And if railroads

    are not built,  to  if ay

    at  railroads?  e do not

    ride on t rides upon us.  Did you ever t

    t underlie the railroad?  Each one is a man,

    an Irishey

    are covered hey

    are sound sleepers, I assure you.  And every fe is

    laid do, if some he pleasure of riding

    on a rail, otune to be ridden upon.  And when

    t is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary

    sleeper in tion, and wake op

    t it, as if this were an

    exception.  I am glad to kno it takes a gang of men for every

    five miles to keep t

    is, for t time get up again.

    e of life?  e are

    determined to be starved before we are  a

    stitcime saves nine, and so take a titches

    today to save nine tomorrow.  As for work, we  any of any

    consequence.  e  Vitus dance, and cannot possibly

    keep our ill.  If I s the

    paris is,  setting the bell,

    tskirts of Concord,

    notanding t press of engagements which was his excuse so

    many times t almost say,

    but  sound, not mainly to save

    property from t, if ruth, much

    more to see it burn, since burn it must, and  known, did

    not set it on fire -- or to see it put out, and ,

    if t is done as  he parish

    cself.  akes a er dinner,

    but ;

    as if t of mankind ood inels.  Some give

    directions to be her

    purpose; and to pay for it, tell hey have dreamed.

    After a nig.

    quot;Pray tell me anyt o a man anywhere on

    t; -- and  over  a man

    to River; never

    dreaming t h cave

    of t t of an eye himself.

    For my part, I could easily do  t-office.  I think

    t tant communications made t.

    to speak critically, I never received more tters

    in my life -- I e t he

    postage.  t is, commonly, an institution through which

    you seriously offer a man t penny for s which is so

    often safely offered in jest.  And I am sure t I never read any

    memorable news in a newspaper.  If we read of one man robbed, or

    murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel

    eamboat blohe

    estern Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers

    in ter -- her.  One is enough.  If

    you are acquainted  do you care for a myriad

    instances and applications?  to a p is

    called, is gossip, and t and read it are old women over

    tea.  Yet not a feer there was

    suc one of to learn

    t arrival, t several large squares of

    plate glass belonging to tablis he

    pressure -- news w mige a

    twelve years, before accuracy.

    As for Spain, for instance, if you knohrow in Don Carlos

    and ta, and Don Pedro and Seville and Granada, from time to

    time in t proportions -- the names a

    little since I sa when

    otertainments fail, it rue to tter, and give

    us as good an idea of t state or ruin of things in Spain as

    t succinct and lucid reports under the

    ne t significant scrap of

    ne quarter ion of 1649; and if you have

    learned tory of her crops for an average year, you never need

    attend to t tions are of a merely

    pecuniary cer.  If one may judge he

    nes, a French

    revolution not excepted.

    ne to kno is which

    ;Kieou- dignitary of tate of ei)

    sent a man to Kseu to knohe

    messenger to be seated near ioned erms:

    is your master doing?  t:  My

    master desires to diminiss, but

    come to the philosopher

    remarked:   a  a ;  the

    preacead of vexing their day

    of rest at t conclusion

    of an ill-spent  the fresh and brave beginning of a new

    one -- ail of a sermon, s

    ;Pause!  Avast!  , but

    deadly slo;

    Seemed for soundest truths, while

    reality is fabulous.  If men eadily observe realities only,

    and not alloo be deluded, life, to compare it h

    sucale and the Arabian

    Nigertainments.  If ed only able and

    to be, music and poetry reets.

    only great and

    and absolute existence, t petty

    fears and petty pleasures are but ty.  this

    is alhe eyes and

    slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by sablish

    and confirm tine and  everywhere, which

    still is built on purely illusory foundations.  Children, who play

    life, discern its true laions more clearly than men, who

    fail to live it  hey are wiser by

    experience, t is, by failure.  I

    quot;there was a kings son, who, being expelled in infancy from his

    native city, o

    maturity in t state, imagined o belong to the barbarous

    race ers having

    discovered o  ion

    of er was removed, and o be a prince.

    So soul,quot; continues t;from tances

    in akes its oil truth

    is revealed to it by some eac knoself to

    be Bra;  I perceive t s of Nehis

    mean life t  penetrate the

    surface of t t is wo be.  If a

    man soy, where,

    t;Mill-damquot; go to?  If he should give us an

    account of ties  recognize

    tion.  Look at a meeting-house, or a

    court-

    t true gaze, and to

    pieces in your account of teem trute, in the

    outskirts of tem, be star, before Adam and

    after t man.  In eternity true and

    sublime.  But all times and places and occasions are now and

    es in t moment, and will never

    be more divine in to

    appre all ual

    instilling and drency t surrounds us.  the

    universe constantly and obediently anso our conceptions;

    or slorack is laid for us.  Let us

    spend our lives in conceiving t or tist never

    yet  some of erity at

    least could accomplis.

    Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be

    track by every nutsos

    falls on t us rise early and fast, or break fast,

    gently and  perturbation; let company come and let company

    go, let termined to make a

    day of it.  ream?  Let

    us not be upset and overerrible rapid and whirlpool

    called a dinner, situated in this

    danger and you are safe, for t of th

    unrelaxed nerves, , looking another

    ied to t like Ulysses.  If tles, let it

    ill it is s pains.  If the bell rings, why

    s kind of music they are like.

    Let us settle ourselves, and  downward

    tradition,

    and delusion, and appearance, t alluvion whe globe,

    ton and Concord,

    tate, try and philosophy and

    religion, till o a tom and rocks in place, which we

    can call reality, and say, take; and then begin,

    dappui, belo and fire, a place

    ate, or set a lamp-post safely,

    or per a Nilometer, but a Realometer, t future

    ages mig of shams and appearances had

    gatime to time.  If you stand riging and face to

    face to a fact, you s surfaces,

    as if it er, and feel its s edge dividing you

    t and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your

    mortal career.  Be it life or deaty.  If we

    are really dying, let us tle in our ts and feel

    cold in tremities; if  us go about our

    business.

    time is but tream I go a-fis it; but

    ect  is.

    Its t slides a eternity remains.  I would drink

    deeper; fistom is pebbly ars.  I

    cannot count one.  I kno t letter of t.  I

    ting t I  as he day I was

    born.  tellect is a cleaver; it discerns and rifts its way

    into t of t h

    my .  I feel all

    my best faculties concentrated in it.  My instinct tells me t my

    ures use t

    and fore pa I hrough

    t t vein is somews;

    so by thin rising vapors I judge; and here I

    o mine.