My Virtual Reading Room

capt_facepalm, this one's for you! ;)



The Mountain And The Squirrel

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter
“Little prig.”

Bun replied,
“You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
To make up a year
And a sphere.

And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry:

I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track.
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut."

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

(From Emerson's "Self-Reliance")

Full essay may be found here: wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/emerson.html