80 
WALDEN. 
his trappings will have to serve that mood too. When 
the soldier is hit by a cannon ball rags are as becoming 
as purple. 
The childish and savage taste of men and women for 
new patterns keeps how many shaking and squinting 
through kaleidoscopes that they may discover the par¬ 
ticular figure which this generation requires to-day. 
The manufacturers have learned that this taste is mere¬ 
ly whimsical. Of two patterns which differ only by a 
few threads more or less of a particular color, the one 
will be sold readily, the other lie on the shelf, though it 
frequently happens that after the lapse of a season the 
latter becomes the most fashionable. Comparatively, 
tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. 
It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin- 
deep and unalterable. 
I cannot believe that our factory system is the best 
mode by which men may get clothing. The condition 
of the operatives is becoming every day more like that 
of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as 
far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, 
not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, 
unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched. 
In the long run men hit only what they aim at. There¬ 
fore, though they should fail immediately, they had bet¬ 
ter aim*at something high. 
As for a Shelter, I will not deny that this is now a 
necessary of life, though there are instances of men 
having done without it for long periods in colder coun¬ 
tries than this. Samuel Laing says that “ The Laplander 
in his skin dress, and in a skin bag which he puts over 
