3.12.2008
Paris Prep
Thoreau's Journal: 11-Mar-1856
I fear the dissipation that traveling, going into society, even the best, the enjoyment of intellectual luxuries, imply. If Paris is much in your mind, if it is more and more to you, Concord is less and less, and yet it would be a wretched bargain to accept the proudest Paris in exchange for my native village. At best, Paris could only be a school in which to learn to live here, a stepping-stone to Concord, as school in which to fit for this university. I wish so to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events, every-day phenomena, so that my senses hourly perceive, my daily walk, the conversation of my neighbors, may inspire me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about me. A man may acquire a taste for wine or brandy, and so lose his love for water, but should we not pity him?
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3 comments:
Congratulations for your blog.
Gail thinks you are hilarious and a good blog-writer. Keep those blog entries going.
Greetings from Granada -España-!
What I think Thoreau is trying to say is that by degrading the simple places by comparing them to great ones, such as Paris is unfair because of the fact that you imagine Paris being something completely than what it really would be if you lived there your whole live. By doing so you would over look the great pleasures of your small town, such as Concord.
I think that Thoreau is saying that when you live in a big city like Paris you tend to forget the little important things. The things that you might have gotten if you lived In a small town like Concord.
I also agree with Ashton in that you will feel different about things when you live there for most of your life
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