Question

What are the narrators advice for packing for a journey and packing for a voyage of life?

Answer 1

The narrator's advice for a journey and packing for a voyage of life is very wise and practical. According to him, we the men and women load up our boats with too much of useless lumber thinking it will make our voyage pleasurable and comfortable. Men and women pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care twopence for them, and that they do not care even a bit for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all! the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminals iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it! The narrator advises men and women to keep their boat of life light with only the things that are needed. Then it will be easier to pull the boat and enjoy the voyage.