36 THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD. 



full and harmonious life, — a sound heart in accord 

 with a sound body. A man must invest himself near 

 at hand and in common things, and be content with a 

 steady and moderate return, if he would know the 

 blessedness of a cheerful heart and the sweetness of a 

 walk over the round earth. This is a lesson the Amer- 

 ican has yet to learn, — capability of amusement on a 

 low key. He expects rapid and extraordinary returns. 

 He would make the very elemental laws pay usury. 

 He has nothing to invest in a walk ; it is too slow, too 

 cheap. We crave the astonishing, the exciting, the far 

 away, and do not know the highways of the gods when 

 we see them, — always a sign of the decay of the faith 

 and simplicity of man. 



If I say to my neighbor, " Come with me, I have 

 great wonders to show you," he pricks up his ears and 

 comes forthwith ; but when I take him out on the hills 

 under the full blaze of the sun, or along the country 

 road, our footsteps lighted by the moon and stars, and 

 say to him, " Behold, these are the wonders, these are 

 the circuits of the gods, this we now tread is a morning 

 star/' he feels defrauded, and as if I had played him a 

 trick. And yet nothing less than dilatation and enthu- 

 siasm like this is the badge of the master walker. 



If we are not sad, we are careworn, hurried, discon- 

 tented, mortgaging the present for the promise of the 

 future. If we take a walk, it is as we take a prescrip- 

 tion, with about the same relish and with about the 

 same purpose; and the more the fatigue the greater 

 our faith in the virtue of the medicine. 



