I took shame to myself for having been so long a writer of idle stories,
and ventured to hope that wisdom would descend upon me with the falling leaves of the avenue;
and that I should light upon an intellectual treasure in the Old Manse,
well worth those hoards of long-hidden gold,
which people seek for in moss-grown houses.
Mosses from an Old Manse, By Nathaniel Hawthorne 1854
