Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in his journal:
H.D.T. seems to think that society suffers for want of war, or some good excitant. But how partial that is! the masses suffer for want of work as barbarous as they are. What is the difference? Now the tiger has got a joint of fresh meat to tear & eat: Before, he had only bones to grind & gnaw. But this concerns only the tigers, & leaves the men where they were . . . Society is a curiosity shop full of odd excellences, a Bramin, a Fakeer, a giraffe, an alligator, Col Bowie, Alvah Crocker, Bronson Alcott, Henry Thoreau, Caroline Sturgis; a world that cannot keep step, admirable melodies, but no chorus, for there is no accord.
(The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 9:434)
