EMERSON
128 "Men
of this surcharge of arterial blood can
not live on nuts and herb tea and elegies, cannot read novels and play whist, cannot satisfy
all
wants at the Thursday lecture or the Boston Athenaeum. They pine for adventure, and must their
go to Pikes Peak, had rather a Pawnee than
day and every day
sit all
counting-room desk.
die of the hatchet of
They
are
made
at
a
for war,
for the sea, for mining, hunting and clearing, for hairbreadth adventures,
venturous
living.
.
.
.
huge risks and ad Their friends and
governors must see that some vent for their ex provided.
The
roisterers
are destined for infamy at
home
will cover
plosive complexion
who
is
you with glory and come back heroes arid gen erals. There are Oregons, Calif ornias and explor ing expeditions enough appertaining to America to find
them
in files to
gnaw and
crocodiles to
eat."
Emerson could not
satisfy all his
wants
in the
Boston Athenaeum or the Saturday Club. Every year he escaped from his neighbors for a lecture