40 
WALDEN. 
a one as their neighbors have. As if one were to wear 
any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for him, 
or, gradually leaving off palmleaf hat or cap of wood¬ 
chuck skin, complain of hard times because he could 
not afford to buy him a crown! It is possible to invent 
a house still more convenient and luxurious than we 
have, which yet all would admit that man could not af¬ 
ford to pay for. Shall we always study to obtain more 
of these things, and not sometimes to be content with 
less ? Shall the respectable citizen thus gravely teach, 
by precept and example, the necessity of the young 
man’s providing a certain number of superfluous glow- 
shoes, and umbrellas, and empty guest chambers for 
empty guests, before he dies? Why should not our 
furniture be as simple as the Arab’s or the Indian’s ? 
When I think of the benefactors of the race, whom we 
have apotheosized as messengers from heaven, bearers 
of divine gifts to man, I do not see in my mind any reti¬ 
nue at their heels, any car-load of fashionable furniture. 
Or what if I were to allow — would it not be a singu¬ 
lar allowance ? — that our furniture should be more 
complex than the Arab’s, in proportion as we are moral¬ 
ly and intellectually his superiors! At present our 
houses are cluttered and defiled with it, and a good house¬ 
wife would sweep out the greater part into the dust hole, 
and not leave her morning’s work undone. Morning 
work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of 
Memnon, what should be man’s morning work in this 
world ? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, 
but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted 
daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted 
still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. 
How, then, could I have a furnished house ? I would 
