A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.

This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore.

There is a sort of homely truth and naturalness in some books which is very rare to find, and yet looks cheap enough. There may benothing lofty in the sentiment, or fine in the expression, but it is careless country talk. Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art. Some have this merit only.

The country is an archipelago of lakes,--the lake-country of New England.

I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They can only force me who obey a higher law than I.... I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live?

How little do the most wonderful inventions of modern times detain us. They insult nature. Every machine, or particular application, seems a slight outrage against universal laws.

Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.