And there are many luxuries that
we may legitimately prefer to it, such as a grateful
conscience, a country life, or the woman of our inclination.
Trite, flat, and obvious as this conclusion may appear, we
have only to look round us in society to see how scantily it
has been recognised; and perhaps even ourselves, after a
little reflection, may decide to spend a trifle less for
money, and indulge ourselves a trifle more in the article of
freedom.
III.
"To have done anything by which you earned money merely,"
says Thoreau, "is to be" (have been, he means) "idle and
worse." There are two passages in his letters, both, oddly
enough, relating to firewood, which must be brought together
to be rightly understood. So taken, they contain between
them the marrow of all good sense on the subject of work in
its relation to something broader than mere livelihood. Here
is the first: "I suppose I have burned up a good-sized tree
to-night - and for what? I settled with Mr. Tarbell for it
the other day; but that wasn't the final settlement. I got
off cheaply from him. At last one will say: 'Let us see, how
much wood did you burn, sir?' And I shall shudder to think
that the next question will be, 'What did you do while you
were warm?'" Even after we have settled with Admetus in the
person of Mr. Tarbell, there comes, you see, a further
question.
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