CONCLUSION. 
351 
pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. 
The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the 
alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; 
the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I 
do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly 
there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. 
The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most inde¬ 
pendent lives of any. May be they are simply great 
enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that 
they are above being supported by the town; but it 
oftener happens that they are not above supporting 
themselves by dishonest means, which should be more 
disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, 
like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new 
things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; re¬ 
turn to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell 
your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see 
that you do not want society. If I were confined to a 
corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world 
would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts 
about me. The philosopher said : “ From an army of 
three divisions one can take away its general, and put it 
in disorder ; from the man the most abject and vulgar one 
cannot take away his thought.” Do not seek so anx¬ 
iously to be developed, to subject yourself to many in¬ 
fluences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Hu¬ 
mility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. The 
shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us, 
“ and lo ! creation widens to our view.” We are often 
reminded that if there were bestowed on us the wealth 
of Croesus, our aims must still be the same, and our 
means essentially the same. Moreover, if you are re¬ 
stricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy 
