considers to be his work, he will do
with a cheerful energy, which will sustain him far beyond the threshold
of fatigue. His personal wants will be few; he will not care for
spending money for the sake of spending it, but he will be liberal and
generous whenever there is need. He will be uneasy in luxury. He will
be a lover of the open air and of the country, but his aim will be
exercise, and the sense of health and vigour, rather than amusement. He
will never be reduced to asking himself how he is going to spend the
day, for the present day, and a long perspective of days ahead, will
already be full by anticipation. He will take work, amusement, people,
as they come, and he will not be apt to make plans or to arrange
parties, because he will expect to find in ordinary life the amusement
and the interest that he desires. He will be above all things
tender-hearted, kind, and fearless. He will not take fancies to people,
or easily discard a friend; but he will be courteous, kind to all
weakness, compassionate to awkwardness, fond of children, good-natured,
loving laughter and peacefulness; he will not be easily disappointed,
and he will have no time to be fretful, if things do not turn out
exactly as he desires.

I have known such persons in every rank of life. They are the people
who can be depended upon to do what they undertake, to understand the
difficulties of others, to sympathize, to help. The essence of it all
is a great absence of self-consciousness, and such people as I have
described would be genuinely surprised, as a rule, if they were told
that they were living a different life from the lives of others.

This simplicity of nature is not often found in conjunction with very
great artistic or intellectual gifts; but when it is so found, it is
one of the most perfect combinations in the world.

The one thing that is entirely fatal to simplicity is the desire to
stimulate the curiosity of others in the matter. The most conspicuous
instance of this, in literature, is the case of Thoreau, who is by many
regarded as the apostle of the simple life. Thoreau was a man of
extremely simple tastes, it is true. He ate pulse, whatever that may
be, and drank water; he was deeply interested in the contemplation of
nature, and he loved to disembarrass himself of all the apparatus of
life. It was really that he hated trouble more than anything in the
world; he found that by working six weeks in the year, he could earn
enough