36 THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD. 



life, a sound heart in accord with a sound body. 

 A man must invest himself near at hand and in com- 

 mon things, and be content with a steady and moder- 

 ate return, if he would know the blessedness of a 

 cheerful 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 wonders, these are 

 the circuits of the gods, this we now tread is a morn- 

 ing star," he feels defrauded, and as if I had played him 

 a trick. And yet nothing less than dilatation and en- 

 thusiasm like this is the badge of the master walker. 



If we are not sad, we are careworn, hurried, discon- 

 tented, mortgaging the present for the promise of 

 the future. If we take a walk, it is as we take a pre- 

 scription, with about the same relish and with about 

 the same purpose ; and the more the fatigue the 

 greater our faith in the virtue of the medicine. 



