22 THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD 



walkers. We are not innocent and simple-hearted 

 enough to enjoy a walk. We have fallen from that 

 state of grace which capacity to enjoy a walk im- 

 plies. It cannot be said that as a people we are so 

 positively sad, or morose, or melancholic, as that we 

 are vacant of that sportiveness and surplusage of 

 animal spirits that characterized our ancestors, and 

 that springs from full and harmonious life, a 

 sound heart in accord with a sound body. A man 

 must invest himself near at hand and in common 

 things, and be content with a steady and moderate 

 return, if he would know the blessedness of a cheer- 

 ful heart and the sweetness of a walk over the round 

 earth. This is a lesson the American has yet to 

 learn, capability of amusement on a low key. He 

 expects rapid and extraordinary returns. He would 

 make the very elemental laws pay usury. He has 

 nothing to invest in a walk; it is too slow, too cheap. 

 We crave the astonishing, the exciting, the far away, 

 and do not know the highways of the gods when we 

 see them, always a sign of the decay of the faith 

 and simplicity of man. 



If I say to my neighbor, " Come with me, I have 

 great wonders to show you," he pricks up his ears 

 and comes forthwith; but when I take him on the 

 hills under the full blaze of the sun, or along the 

 country road, our footsteps lighted by the moon and 

 stars, and say to him, " Behold, these are the won- 

 ders, these are the circuits of the gods, this we now 



