Mohammed to the inhabitants of
Patagonia; I will brush up the gods of Rome; dust that old mythology;
compound and simplify the whole into a good, comfortable, believable
system, and proclaim Olympian Jove in the deserts of Amazonia. I will be a
Turk, an Indian, a Pirate; I will be any thing. What do I care, and who
shall say me nay? This sensation of freedom is too delicious to be
interrupted by any companionship. And for my part, I want no better
companions than this wind, which free as I am, blows against my cheek, and
those clouds, that fly in unending succession over my head. O! ye blue
chariots of the Thunderer! whither hurry ye so rapidly? Over hill and
valley, and countries and cities of men, ye fly unheeding; and borne
forward on the swift pinions of the wind, ye speed on your mission afar!
What to you are states, and kingdoms, or land or ocean? Furiously driving
in black armies to meet opposing armies, or singly floating in that
waveless sea of blue, your existence is above the earth; men look _up_ to
you with wonder or terror, but _your_ glance is never downward. Onward ye
wander, in your unbounded career, at your own free will. Nothing bounds
_my_ career or _my_ will. Fleecy ears! if ye would sustain the form of a
mortal, triumphantly would you and I sail over the heads of men! Softly,
obedient to the impulse of chance, would we glide over continent and sea,
and explore the mysteries of undiscovered islands and climes; calmly would
I look down on the strife or toil of human passions, and calmly would we
ride on forever, through night and day! But if the clouds are not, the
earth is, mine--and I am my own! There are none to molest or make me
afraid with the useless importunities or warnings of friendship. My
destiny is my own; and it is pleasant not to care what I may be or do.
Pleasure is now; sorrow is prospective; and life will be only pleasure,
because I let the past and the future go, and crowd as many happy thoughts
as possible into the present moment.

What a spacious plain of the world! Dotted with habitations and with men
of all colors, and customs, and conditions! Every one thinks he possesses
a soul; and in virtue thereof, he considers himself entitled to set up as
an independent existence, and endeavors to move in a little path of his
own. But in fact, he plods humbly along, and repeats with patient toil the
example of labor and unspeculating perseverance that his fathers have set
him. A vast multit