352 
WALDEN. 
books and newspapers, for instance, you are but con¬ 
fined to the most significant and vital experiences; you 
are compelled to deal with the material which yields the 
most sugar and the most starch. It is life near the bone 
where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a 
trifler. No man loses ever on a lower level by mag¬ 
nanimity on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy su¬ 
perfluities only. Money is not required to buy one 
necessary of the soul. 
I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose com¬ 
position was poured a little alloy of bell metal. Often, 
in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a 
confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise 
of my contemporaries. My neighbors tell me of their 
adventures with famous gentlemen and ladies, what no¬ 
tabilities they met at the dinner-table ; but I am no 
more interested in such things than in the contents of the 
Daily Times. The interest and the conversation are 
about costume and manners chiefly; but a goose is a 
goose still, dress it as you will. They tell me of Cali¬ 
fornia and Texas, of England and the Indies, of the 
Hon. Mr.- of Georgia or of Massachusetts, all 
transient and fleeting phenomena, till I am ready to 
leap from their court-yard like the Mameluke bey. I 
delight to come to my bearings, — not walk in proces¬ 
sion with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but 
to walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may, 
— not to live in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial 
Nineteenth Century, but stand or sit thoughtfully while 
it goes by. What are men celebrating ? They are all 
on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a 
speech from somebody. God is only the president of 
the day, and Webster is his orator. I love to weigh, to 
