FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 21 9 



XLIII. 



HAS it ever occurred to you how purely 

 conventional, arbitrary, and false are our 

 ordinary views of business and occupation ? 

 I will not say that the money test is the sole 

 one which is applied, but those which sup 

 plement it are usually much of the same 

 character. Undoubtedly the first consider 

 ation for all, is the maintenance of life, for, 

 as it is held on the border that the only 

 :;nod Indian is a dead Indian, so c converso, 

 it is felt, I suppose, by each of us, that we 

 can lie of precious little service unless we 

 are alive. Of course, in the case of many, 

 this impression could be effectually con 

 tested, and of such it could be proved that 

 nothing in their lives became them so well 

 as would their leaving of them. But speak 

 ing generally, the keeping of the breath in 

 the body is the primary object of each, and 

 the effort to do this accounts in a large 

 measure for the subserviency in a mercan 

 tile world to the test referred to. I was led 

 to reflect upon this subject at the moment 



