228 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that 

 over any ignominious blemish in him all his fel- 

 lows should run to throw their costliest robes. 

 That immaculate manliness we feel in ourselves 

 so far within us that it remains intact though all 

 the outer character seems gone bleeds with keen- 

 est anguish at the spectacle of a valor-ruined 

 man. Nor can piety itself, at such a shameful 

 sight, completely stifle her upbraidings against the 

 permitting stars. But this august dignity I treat 

 of, is not the dignity of kings and robes, but the 

 abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. 

 Thou shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a 

 pick and drives a spike; that democratic dignity 

 which, on all hands, radiates without end from 

 God Himself." 



There is then something to be said in favor of 

 this animal and primitive nature in us. Thoreau, 

 albeit so spiritually-minded, could yet "rever- 

 ence" that lower nature in him which made him 

 brother to the brute. He experienced and fully 

 appreciated its tonic effect. And until we get a 

 better civilization more equal in its ameliorating 

 effect on all classes if there must be classes 

 and more likely to endure, it is perhaps a fortu- 

 nate thing that we have so far failed to eliminate 

 the "savage" in us the "Old Man" as some 

 might prefer to call it. Not a respectable Old 

 Man, but a very useful one occasionally, when we 

 stand in sore need of his services and he comes 

 promptly and unsummoned to our aid. 



