234 Idle Days in Patagonia. 
braidings 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 favour of 
this animal and primitive nature in us. Thoreau, 
albeit so spiritually-minded, could yet ‘‘ reverence ” 
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 civili- 
zation more equal in its ameliorating effect on 
all classes—if there must be classes—and more 
likely to endure, it is perhaps a fortunate 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. 
