When I possessed nothing, I had the forests and 

 the meadows, the sea and the heavens with all 

 their stars ; but ever since I have bought this old 

 house and garden, I have nothing else. Posses- 

 sion is a contract by which we renounce every- 

 thing that is not enclosed within a definite lim- 

 ited boundary. 



"There are moments when I ask myself 

 whether perchance our minds may not be so 

 turned that we call poverty that which is splendor 

 and riches, and opulence that which is misery and 

 nakedness." 



Most of us certainly evince but very little ap- 

 preciation of the wealth and pleasure which might 

 surround us if we only gave ourselves up to their 

 assimilation. We look at most things in an ig- 

 norant, distorted way, and it is difficult to say 

 which of us are sane and reasonable and which 

 are witless and irrational. " Dans toutes les 

 grandes villes, il y a un hopital pour les insenses ; 

 c'est que, en y renfermant quelques pauvres dia- 

 bles sous le nom de fous, on fait croire aux 

 etrangers que ceux qui sont hors de cet hopital 

 ne sont pas." 



180 



