We dream of foreign countries, of other times and races of man, placing
them at a distance in history or space; but let some significant event like
the present occur in our midst; and we discover, often, this distance and
this strangeness between us and our nearest neighbors. They are our
Austrias, and Chinas, and South Sea Islands. Our crowded society be-
comes well spaced all at once, clean and handsome to the eye, — a city
of magnificent distances. We discover why it was that we never got beyond
compliments and surfaces with them before; we became aware of as many
versts between us and them as there are between a hermit in the thor-
oughfares of the marketplace. Impassable sea suddenly find their level
between us, or dumb steppes stretch themselves out there. It is the differ-
ence of constitution, of intelligence, and faith, and not streams and
mountains, that make the true and impassable boundaries between in-
dividuals and between states.
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H E N RY D A V I D T H O R E A U
from — "A Plea for Captain John Brown"
