truth of all times.

At no epoch have the exterior conditions which man has made for himself
by his industry or his knowledge, been able to exempt him from care for
the state of his inner life. The face of the world alters around us, its
intellectual and material factors vary; and no one can arrest these
changes, whose suddenness is sometimes not short of perilous. But the
important thing is that at the center of shifting circumstance man
should remain man, live his life, make toward his goal. And whatever be
his road, to make toward his goal, the traveler must not lose himself in
crossways, nor hamper his movements with useless burdens. Let him heed
well his direction and forces, and keep good faith; and that he may the
better devote himself to the essential--which is to progress--at
whatever sacrifice, let him simplify his baggage.

II

THE ESSENCE OF SIMPLICITY

Before considering the question of a practical return to the simplicity
of which we dream, it will be necessary to define simplicity in its very
essence. For in regard to it people commit the same error that we have
just denounced, confounding the secondary with the essential, substance
with form. They are tempted to believe that simplicity presents certain
external characteristics by which it may be recognized, and in which it
really consists. Simplicity and lowly station, plain dress, a modest
dwelling, slender means, poverty--these things seem to go together.
Nevertheless, this is not the case. Just now I passed three men on the
street: the first in his carriage; the others on foot, and one of them
shoeless. The shoeless man does not necessarily lead the least complex
life of the three. It may be, indeed, that he who rides in his carriage
is sincere and unaffected, in spite of his position, and is not at all
the slave of his wealth; it may be also that the pedestrian in shoes
neither envies him who rides nor despises him who goes unshod; and
lastly, it is possible that under his rags, his feet in the dust, the
third man has a hatred of simplicity, of labor, of sobriety, and dreams
only of idleness and pleasure. For among the least simple and
straightforward of men must be reckoned professional beggars, knights of
the road, parasites, and the whole tribe of the obsequious and envious,
whose aspirations are summed up in this: to arrive at seizing a
morsel--the biggest possible--of that prey which the fortunate of earth
consume. And to this same c