Happy the man whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air In his own ground.

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.

He had got himself a life. Now he had to find a purpose in it.

If there's anything better, God kept it for himself.

Everybody wants a little bit of land, not much. Jus’ som’thin’ that was his. Som’thin’ he could live on and there couldn’t nobody throw him off of it.

How happy he, who free from care
The rage of courts, and noise of towns; Contented breathes his native air,
In his own grounds

The wise man makes an island of himself that no flood can overwhelm.

He longed for the little cabin and the sun-kissed sea - for the cool interior of the well-built house, and for the never-ending wonders of the many books.

I have a room all to myself; it is nature.

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.

...the authors he has himself discovered are his own exclusive territory, like the saloon compartment of a special train.

MARCH, 1846 — I have at last got the little room I have wanted so long, and am very happy about it. It does me good to be alone, and Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me. My work-basket and desk are by the window, and my closet is full of dried herbs that smell very nice. The door that opens into the garden will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the woods when I like.

The Lord had the wonderful advantage of being able to work alone.

He saw clearly how plain and simple - how narrow, even - it all was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one's existence. He did not at all want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there; the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.