12 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



few are the things we see ! And of those we see, 

 how few there are concerning which we have any 

 real knowledge, enough, even, to use words 

 about them ! (When a man can do that concern- 

 ing any class of natural objects, no matter what 

 they are or what he says about them, he passes 

 with the crowd for a scholar, or at the very least 

 a " close observer.") But to tell the shameful 

 truth, my mood just now is not inquisitive. I 

 should like to know ? Yes ; but I can get on 

 without knowing. There are worse things than 

 ignorance. Let this plant be what it will. I 

 should be little the wiser for being able to name 

 it. 1 I have no body of facts to which to attach 

 this new one ; and unrelated knowledge is almost 

 the same as none at all. At best it is quickly 

 forgotten. So my indolence excuses itself. 



The road begins to climb rather sharply. Un- 

 less I am going to the top of the ridge and 

 beyond, I have gone far enough. So I turn my 

 back upon the mountain ; and behold, the cloud 

 having lifted again, there, straight before me 

 down the road and across the valley, is the 

 house from which I set out, almost or quite the 

 only one in sight. After all, I have walked but 

 a little way, though I have been a good while 



1 It may have been some species of Pellia, to judge by the 

 plate in Gray's Manual. 



