138 THOREAU. 



voices of every conceivable pitch, representing the three 

 sexes of men, women, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagues. 

 The nameless eagle of the tree Ygdrasil was about to sit at 

 last, and wild-eyed enthusiasts rushed from all sides, each 

 eager to thrust under the mystic bird that chalk egg from 

 which the new and fairer Creation was to be hatched in due 

 time. Redeunt Saturnia regna so far was certain, though 

 in what shape, or by what methods, was still a matter of 

 debate. Every possible form of intellectual and physical 

 dyspepsia brought forth its gospel. Bran had its prophets, 

 and the presartorial simplicity of Adam its martyrs, tailored 

 impromptu from the tar-pot by incensed neighbours, and 

 sent forth to illustrate the &quot; feathered Mercury,&quot; as defined 

 by Webster and Worcester. Plainness of speech was carried 

 to a pitch that would have taken away the breath of George 

 Fox ; and even swearing had its evangelists, who answered 

 a simple inquiry after their health with an elaborate 

 ingenuity of imprecation that might have been honourably 

 mentioned by Marlborough in general orders. Everybody 

 had a mission (with a capital M) to attend to everybody- 

 else s business. No brain but had its private maggot, which 

 must have found pitiably short commons sometimes. Not 

 a few impecunious zealots abjured the use of money (unless 

 earned by other people), professing to live on the internal 

 revenues of the spirit. Some had an assurance of instant 

 millennium so soon as hooks and eyes should be substituted 

 for buttons. Communities were established where every 

 thing was to be common but common-sense. Men renounced 

 their old gods, and hesitated only whether to bestow their 

 furloughed allegiance on Thor or Budh. Conventions were 

 held for every hitherto inconceivable purpose. The belated 

 gift of tongues, as among the Fifth Monarchy men, spread 

 like a contagion, rendering its victims incomprehensible to 

 all Christian men ; whether equally so to the most distant 

 possible heathen or not was unexperimented, though many 

 would have subscribed liberally that a fair trial might be 

 made. It was the pentecost of Shinar. The day of utter 

 ances reproduced the day of rebuses and anagrams, and 



