26 
WALDEN. 
would not soonest salute the scarecrow? Passing a 
cornfield the other day, close by a hat and coat on a 
stake, I recognized the owner of the farm. He was 
only a little more weather-beaten than when I saw him 
last. I have heard of a dog that barked at every 
stranger who approached his master’s premises with 
clothes on, but was easily quieted by a naked thief. It 
is an interesting question how far men would retain their 
relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. 
Could you, in such a case, tell surely of any company 
of civilized men, which belonged to the most respected 
class ? When Madam Pfeiffer, in her adventurous travels 
round the world, from east to west, had got so near home 
as Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of 
wearing other than a travelling dress, when she went to 
meet the authorities, for she “ was now in a civilized 
country, where —-people are judged of by their 
clothes.” Even in our democratic New England towns 
the accidental possession of wealth, and its manifestation 
in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor 
almost universal respect. But they who yield such re¬ 
spect, numerous as they are, are so far heathen, and need 
to have a missionary sent to them. Beside, clothes in¬ 
troduced sewing, a kind of work which you may call 
endless; a woman’s dress, at least, is never done. 
A man who has at length found something to do will 
not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him the old 
will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for an indeter¬ 
minate period. Old shoes will serve a hero longer than 
they have served his valet, — if a hero ever has a valet, 
— bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make them 
do. Only they who go to soirees and legislative halls 
must have new coats, coats to change as often as the 
