_P.S._—My opinion about Thoreau, and the passage in _The Week_, is
perhaps a fad, but it is sincere and stable. I am still of the same mind,
five years later; did you observe that I had said "modern" authors? and
will you observe again that this passage touches the very joint of our
division? It is one that appeals to me, deals with that part of life
that I think the most important, and you, if I gather rightly, so much
less so? You believe in the extreme moment of the facts that humanity
has acquired and is acquiring; I think them of moment, but still of
much less than those inherent or inherited brute principles and laws
that sit upon us (in the character of conscience) as heavy as a shirt of
mail, and that (in the character of the affections and the airy spirit
of pleasure) make all the light of our lives. The house is, indeed, a
great thing, and should be rearranged on sanitary principles; but my
heart and all my interest are with the dweller, that ancient of days
and day-old infant, man.