220 INDOOE STUDIES 



mind that there is no harm in them, you find out 

 that they are pretty good company." The old re- 

 cluse knew what he was saying. Things do show 

 themselves when one is alone; they emerge on all 

 sides; they come in troops from all points of the 

 compass, and one is only master of the situation 

 when he can make good company of them. How 

 your misdeeds find you out! the still small voice of 

 conscience, which you could not hear amid the roar 

 of the town, makes itself heard now; all the past 

 beleaguers you, — whether with an army of angels or 

 of demons, depends upon what your past has been. 



The old recluse above referred to, the traveler 

 found living in a hut alone in the mountains. He 

 ■ had lived there many years, with no companionship 

 but his dogs. An Irishman by birth, he had tried 

 many parts of the world, and seen many phases of 

 life, and had at last found his place in the solitude 

 of the Mexican mountains. He had learned the 

 art of dreaming with his eyes open, which is the 

 charm of solitude. A man who cannot dream with 

 his eyes open had better not court solitude. Such 

 an old dreamer was found the other day by some 

 railroad surveyors on a mountain in North Carolina. 

 He had lived there in his hut for fifty years. He, 

 too, had for companion a dog. If Thoreau had 

 made friends with a dog to share his bed and board 

 in his retreat by Walden Pond, one would have 

 had more faith in his sincerity. The dog would 

 have been the seal and authentication of his retreat. 

 A man who has no heart for a dog, — how can he 



