And What We Gain 221 



A man who has at length found something to do 

 will not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him 

 the old will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for 

 an indeterminate period. Old shoes will serve a 

 hero longer than they have served his valet if a 

 hero ever has a valet ; bare feet are older than 

 shoes, and he can make them do. Only they who 

 go to soirees and legislative halls must have new 

 coats, coats to change as often as the man changes 

 in them. But if my jacket and trousers, my hat 

 and shoes, are fit to worship God in, they will do, 

 will they not ? Who ever saw his old clothes, his 

 old coat actually worn out, resolved into its primi- 

 tive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity 

 to bestow it on some poor boy, by him, perchance, 

 to be bestowed on one poorer still, or shall we say 

 richer, who could do with less ? I say beware of 

 all enterprises that require new clothes and not 

 rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a 

 new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit ? 

 If you have any enterprise before you, try it in 

 your old clothes. All men want not something to 

 do with, but something to do, or rather something 

 to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new 

 suit, however dirty or ragged the old, until we have 

 so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, 



