VISITORS. 
153 
surprised when the herald blows his summons before 
some Tremont or Astor or Middlesex House, to see 
come creeping out over the piazza for all inhabitants a 
ridiculous mouse, which soon again slinks into some hole 
in the pavement. 
One inconvenience I sometimes experienced in so 
small a house, the difficulty of getting to a sufficient dis¬ 
tance from my guest when we began to utter the big 
thoughts in big words. You want room for your 
thoughts to get into sailing trim and run a course or 
two before they make their port. The bullet of your 
thought must have overcome its lateral and ricochet 
motion and fallen into its last and steady course before 
it reaches the ear of the hearer, else it may plough out 
again through the side of his head. Also, our sen¬ 
tences wanted room to unfold and form their columns in 
the interval. Individuals, like nations, must have suit¬ 
able broad and natural boundaries, even a considerable 
neutral ground, between them. I have found it a sin¬ 
gular luxury to talk across the pond to a companion on 
the opposite side. In my house we were so near that 
we could not begin to hear, — we could not speak low 
enough to be heard; as when you throw two stones 
into calm water so near that they break each other’s 
undulations. If we are merely loquacious and loud 
talkers, then we can afford to stand very near together, 
cheek by jowl, and feel each other’s breath; but if 
we speak reservedly and thoughtfully, we want to be 
farther apart, that all animal heat and moisture may 
have a chance to evaporate. If we would enjoy the 
most intimate society with that in each of us which is 
without, or above, being spoken to, we must not only be 
silent, but commonly so far apart bodily that we cannot 
