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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Excursions + +Author: Henry D. Thoreau + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9846] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 23, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXCURSIONS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Bidwell and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Illustration: Portrait of Thoreau] + + +MR. THOREAU'S WRITINGS. + +I. WALDEN. 1 vol. 16mo. Price $1.25. + +II. A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS. 1 vol. 12mo. Price $1.50. + + + + + EXCURSIONS. + + BY + + HENRY D. THOREAU. + + + 1863 + + + + CONTENTS. + + + BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH + + NATURAL HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS + + A WALK TO WACHUSETT + + THE LANDLORD + + A WINTER WALK + + THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES + + WALKING + + AUTUMNAL TINTS + + WILD APPLES + + NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. + +BY R.W. EMERSON. + +HENRY DAVID THOREAU was the last male descendant of a French ancestor who +came to this country from the Isle of Guernsey. His character exhibited +occasional traits drawn from this blood in singular combination with a +very strong Saxon genius. + +He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on the 12th of July, 1817. He was +graduated at Harvard College in 1837, but without any literary +distinction. An iconoclast in literature, he seldom thanked colleges for +their service to him, holding them in small esteem, whilst yet his debt to +them was important. After leaving the University, he joined his brother in +teaching a private school, which he soon renounced. His father was a +manufacturer of lead-pencils, and Henry applied himself for a time to this +craft, believing he could make a better pencil than was then in use. After +completing his experiments, he exhibited his work to chemists and artists +in Boston, and having obtained their certificates to its excellence and to +its equality with the best London manufacture, he returned home contented. +His friends congratulated him that he had now opened his way to fortune. +But he replied, that he should never make another pencil. "Why should I? +I would not do again what I have done once." He resumed his endless walks +and miscellaneous studies, making every day some new acquaintance with +Nature, though as yet never speaking of zooelogy or botany, since, though +very studious of natural facts, he was incurious of technical and textual +science. + +At this time, a strong, healthy youth, fresh from college, whilst all his +companions were choosing their profession, or eager to begin some +lucrative employment, it was inevitable that his thoughts should be +exercised on the same question, and it required rare decision to refuse +all the accustomed paths, and keep his solitary freedom at the cost of +disappointing the natural expectations of his family and friends: all the +more difficult that he had a perfect probity, was exact in securing his +own independence, and in holding every man to the like duty. But Thoreau +never faltered. He was a born protestant. He declined to give up his large +ambition of knowledge and action for any narrow craft or profession, +aiming at a much more comprehensive calling, the art of living well. +If he slighted and defied the opinions of others, it was only that he was +more intent to reconcile his practice with his own belief. Never idle or +self-indulgent, he preferred, when he wanted money, earning it by some +piece of manual labor agreeable to him, as building a boat or a fence, +planting, grafting, surveying, or other short work, to any long +engagements. With his hardy habits and few wants, his skill in wood-craft, +and his powerful arithmetic, he was very competent to live in any part of +the world. It would cost him less time to supply his wants than another. +He was therefore secure of his leisure. + +A natural skill for mensuration, growing out of his mathematical +knowledge, and his habit of ascertaining the measures and distances of +objects which interested him, the size of trees, the depth and extent of +ponds and rivers, the height of mountains, and the air-line distance of +his favorite summits,--this, and his intimate knowledge of the territory +about Concord, made him drift into the profession of land-surveyor. It had +the advantage for him that it led him continually into new and secluded +grounds, and helped his studies of Nature. His accuracy and skill in this +work were readily appreciated, and he found all the employment he wanted. + +He could easily solve the problems of the surveyor, but he was daily beset +with graver questions, which he manfully confronted. He interrogated every +custom, and wished to settle all his practice on an ideal foundation. He +was a protestant _a l'outrance_, and few lives contain so many +renunciations. He was bred to no profession; he never married; he lived +alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to +the State: he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of +tobacco; and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. He chose, +wisely, no doubt, for himself, to be the bachelor of thought and Nature. +He had no talent for wealth, and knew how to be poor without the least +hint of squalor or inelegance. Perhaps he fell into his way of living +without forecasting it much, but approved it with later wisdom. + +"I am often reminded," he wrote in his journal, "that, if I had bestowed +on me the wealth of Croesus, my aims must be still the same, and my means +essentially the same." He had no temptations to fight against,--no +appetites, no passions, no taste for elegant trifles. A fine house, dress, +the manners and talk of highly cultivated people were all thrown away on +him. He much preferred a good Indian, and considered these refinements as +impediments to conversation, wishing to meet his companion on the simplest +terms. He declined invitations to dinner-parties, because there each was +in every one's way, and he could not meet the individuals to any purpose. +"They make their pride," he said, "in making their dinner cost much; I +make my pride in making my dinner cost little." When asked at table what +dish he preferred, he answered, "The nearest." He did not like the taste +of wine, and never had a vice in his life. He said,--"I have a faint +recollection of pleasure derived from smoking dried lily-stems, before I +was a man. I had commonly a supply of these. I have never smoked anything +more noxious." + +He chose to be rich by making his wants few, and supplying them himself. +In his travels, he used the railroad only to get over so much country as +was unimportant to the present purpose, walking hundreds of miles, +avoiding taverns, buying a lodging in farmers' and fishermen's houses, as +cheaper, and more agreeable to him, and because there he could better find +the men and the information he wanted. + +There was somewhat military in his nature not to be subdued, always manly +and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in +opposition. He wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to pillory, I may say +required a little sense of victory, a roll of the drum, to call his powers +into full exercise. It cost him nothing to say No; indeed, he found it +much easier than to say Yes. It seemed as if his first instinct on hearing +a proposition was to controvert it, so impatient was he of the limitations +of our daily thought. This habit, of course, is a little chilling to the +social affections; and though the companion would in the end acquit him of +any malice or untruth, yet it mars conversation. Hence, no equal companion +stood in affectionate relations with one so pure and guileless. "I love +Henry," said one of his friends, "but I cannot like him; and as for taking +his arm, I should as soon think of taking the arm of an elm-tree." + +Yet, hermit and stoic as he was, he was really fond of sympathy, and threw +himself heartily and childlike into the company of young people whom he +loved, and whom he delighted to entertain, as he only could, with the +varied and endless anecdotes of his experiences by field and river. And he +was always ready to lead a huckleberry party or a search for chestnuts or +grapes. Talking, one day, of a public discourse, Henry remarked, that +whatever succeeded with the audience was bad. I said, "Who would not like +to write something which all can read, like 'Robinson Crusoe'? and who +does not see with regret that his page is not solid with a right +materialistic treatment, which delights everybody?" Henry objected, of +course, and vaunted the better lectures which reached only a few persons. +But, at supper, a young girl, understanding that he was to lecture at the +Lyceum, sharply asked him, "whether his lecture would be a nice, +interesting story, such as she wished to hear, or whether it was one of +those old philosophical things that she did not care about." Henry turned +to her, and bethought himself, and, I saw, was trying to believe that he +had matter that might fit her and her brother, who were to sit up and go +to the lecture, if it was a good one for them. + +He was a speaker and actor of the truth,--born such,--and was ever running +into dramatic situations from this cause. In any circumstance, it +interested all bystanders to know what part Henry would take, and what he +would say; and he did not disappoint expectation, but used an original +judgment on each emergency. In 1845 he built himself a small framed house +on the shores of Walden Pond, and lived there two years alone, a life of +labor and study. This action was quite native and fit for him. No one who +knew him would tax him with affectation. He was more unlike his neighbors +in his thought than in his action. As soon as he had exhausted the +advantages of that solitude, he abandoned it. In 1847, not approving some +uses to which the public expenditure was applied, he refused to pay his +town tax, and was put in jail. A friend paid the tax for him, and he was +released. The like annoyance was threatened the next year. But, as his +friends paid the tax, notwithstanding his protest, I believe he ceased to +resist. No opposition or ridicule had any weight with him. He coldly and +fully stated his opinion without affecting to believe that it was the +opinion of the company. It was of no consequence, if every one present +held the opposite opinion. On one occasion he went to the University +Library to procure some books. The librarian refused to lend them. Mr. +Thoreau repaired to the President, who stated to him the rules and usages, +which permitted the loan of books to resident graduates, to clergymen who +were alumni, and to some others resident within a circle of ten miles' +radius from the College. Mr. Thoreau explained to the President that the +railroad had destroyed the old scale of distances,--that the library was +useless, yes, and President and College useless, on the terms of his +rules,--that the one benefit he owed to the College was its library,-- +that, at this moment, not only his want of books was imperative, but he +wanted a large number of books, and assured him that he, Thoreau, and not +the librarian, was the proper custodian of these. In short, the President +found the petitioner so formidable, and the rules getting to look so +ridiculous, that he ended by giving him a privilege which in his hands +proved unlimited thereafter. + +No truer American existed than Thoreau. His preference of his country and +condition was genuine, and his aversation from English and European +manners and tastes almost reached contempt. He listened impatiently to +news or _bon mots_ gleaned from London circles; and though he tried to be +civil, these anecdotes fatigued him. The men were all imitating each +other, and on a small mould. Why can they not live as far apart as +possible, and each be a man by himself? What he sought was the most +energetic nature; and he wished to go to Oregon, not to London. "In every +part of Great Britain," he wrote in his diary, "are discovered traces of +the Romans, their funereal urns, their camps, their roads, their +dwellings. But New England, at least, is not based on any Roman ruins. We +have not to lay the foundations of our houses on the ashes of a former +civilization." + +But, idealist as he was, standing for abolition of slavery, abolition of +tariffs, almost for abolition of government, it is needless to say he +found himself not only unrepresented in actual politics, but almost +equally opposed to every class of reformers. Yet he paid the tribute of +his uniform respect to the Anti-Slavery Party. One man, whose personal +acquaintance he had formed, he honored with exceptional regard. Before the +first friendly word had been spoken for Captain John Brown, after the +arrest, he sent notices to most houses in Concord, that he would speak in +a public hall on the condition and character of John Brown, on Sunday +evening, and invited all people to come. The Republican Committee, the +Abolitionist Committee, sent him word that it was premature and not +advisable. He replied,--"I did not send to you for advice, but to announce +that I am to speak." The hall was filled at an early hour by people of all +parties, and his earnest eulogy of the hero was heard by all respectfully, +by many with a sympathy that surprised themselves. + +It was said of Plotinus that he was ashamed of his body, and 'tis very +likely he had good reason for it,--that his body was a bad servant, and he +had not skill in dealing with the material world, as happens often to men +of abstract intellect. But Mr. Thoreau was equipped with a most adapted +and serviceable body. He was of short stature, firmly built, of light +complexion, with strong, serious blue eyes, and a grave aspect,--his face +covered in the late years with a becoming beard. His senses were acute, +his frame well-knit and hardy, his hands strong and skilful in the use of +tools. And there was a wonderful fitness of body and mind. He could pace +sixteen rods more accurately than another man could measure them with rod +and chain. He could find his path in the woods at night, he said, better +by his feet than his eyes. He could estimate the measure of a tree very +well by his eyes; he could estimate the weight of a calf or a pig, like a +dealer. From a box containing a bushel or more of loose pencils, he could +take up with his hands fast enough just a dozen pencils at every grasp. He +was a good swimmer, runner, skater, boatman, and would probably outwalk +most countrymen in a day's journey. And the relation of body to mind was +still finer than we have indicated. He said he wanted every stride his +legs made. The length of his walk uniformly made the length of his +writing. If shut up in the house, he did not write at all. + +He had a strong common sense, like that which Rose Flammock, the weaver's +daughter, in Scott's romance, commends in her father, as resembling a +yardstick, which, whilst it measures dowlas and diaper, can equally well +measure tapestry and cloth of gold. He had always a new resource. When I +was planting forest-trees, and had procured half a peck of acorns, he said +that only a small portion of them would be sound, and proceeded to examine +them, and select the sound ones. But finding this took time, he said, "I +think, if you put them all into water, the good ones will sink;" which +experiment we tried with success. He could plan a garden, or a house, or a +barn; would have been competent to lead a "Pacific Exploring Expedition"; +could give judicious counsel in the gravest private or public affairs. + +He lived for the day, not cumbered and mortified by his memory. If he +brought you yesterday a new proposition, he would bring you to-day another +not less revolutionary. A very industrious man, and setting, like all +highly organized men, a high value on his time, he seemed the only man of +leisure in town, always ready for any excursion that promised well, or for +conversation prolonged into late hours. His trenchant sense was never +stopped by his rules of daily prudence, but was always up to the new +occasion. He liked and used the simplest food, yet, when some one urged a +vegetable diet, Thoreau thought all diets a very small matter, saying that +"the man who shoots the buffalo lives better than the man who boards at +the Graham House." He said,--"You can sleep near the railroad, and never +be disturbed: Nature knows very well what sounds are worth attending to, +and has made up her mind not to hear the railroad-whistle. But things +respect the devout mind, and a mental ecstasy was never interrupted." He +noted, what repeatedly befell him, that, after receiving from a distance a +rare plant, he would presently find the same in his own haunts. And those +pieces of luck which happen only to good players happened to him. One day, +walking with a stranger, who inquired where Indian arrow-heads could he +found, he replied, "Everywhere," and, stooping forward, picked one on the +instant from the ground. At Mount Washington, in Tuckerman's Ravine, +Thoreau had a bad fall, and sprained his foot. As he was in the act of +getting up from his fall, he saw for the first time the leaves of the +_Arnica mollis_. + +His robust common sense, armed with stout hands, keen perceptions, and +strong will, cannot yet account for the superiority which shone in his +simple and hidden life. I must add the cardinal fact, that there was an +excellent wisdom in him, proper to a rare class of men, which showed him +the material world as a means and symbol. This discovery, which sometimes +yields to poets a certain casual and interrupted light, serving for the +ornament of their writing, was in him an unsleeping insight; and whatever +faults or obstructions of temperament might cloud it, he was not +disobedient to the heavenly vision. In his youth, he said, one day, "The +other world is all my art: my pencils will draw no other; my jack-knife +will cut nothing else; I do not use it as a means." This was the muse and +genius that ruled his opinions, conversation, studies, work, and course of +life. This made him a searching judge of men. At first glance he measured +his companion, and, though insensible to some fine traits of culture, +could very well report his weight and calibre. And this made the +impression of genius which his conversation often gave. + +He understood the matter in hand at a glance, and saw the limitations +and poverty of those he talked with, so that nothing seemed concealed +from such terrible eyes. I have repeatedly known young men of sensibility +converted in a moment to the belief that this was the man they were in +search of, the man of men, who could tell them all they should do. +His own dealing with them was never affectionate, but superior, +didactic,--scorning their petty ways,--very slowly conceding, or not +conceding at all, the promise of his society at their houses, or even at +his own. "Would he not walk with them?" "He did not know. There was +nothing so important to him as his walk; he had no walks to throw away on +company." Visits were offered him from respectful parties, but he declined +them. Admiring friends offered to carry him at their own cost to the +Yellow-Stone River,--to the West Indies,--to South America. But though +nothing could be more grave or considered than his refusals, they remind +one in quite new relations of that fop Brummel's reply to the gentleman +who offered him his carriage in a shower, "But where will _you_ ride, +then?"--and what accusing silences, and what searching and irresistible +speeches, battering down all defences, his companions can remember! + +Mr. Thoreau dedicated his genius with such entire love to the fields, +hills, and waters of his native town, that he made them known and +interesting to all reading Americans, and to people over the sea. +The river on whose banks he was born and died he knew from its springs to +its confluence with the Merrimack. He had made summer and winter +observations on it for many years, and at every hour of the day and the +night. The result of the recent survey of the Water Commissioners +appointed by the State of Massachusetts he had reached by his private +experiments, several years earlier. Every fact which occurs in the bed, +on the banks, or in the air over it; the fishes, and their spawning and +nests, their manners, their food; the shad-flies which fill the air on a +certain evening once a year, and which are snapped at by the fishes so +ravenously that many of these die of repletion; the conical heaps of small +stones on the river-shallows, one of which heaps will sometimes overfill a +cart,--these heaps the huge nests of small fishes; the birds which +frequent the stream, heron, duck, sheldrake, loon, osprey; the snake, +musk-rat, otter, woodchuck, and fox, on the banks; the turtle, frog, hyla, +and cricket, which make the banks vocal,--were all known to him, and, as +it were, townsmen and fellow-creatures; so that he felt an absurdity or +violence in any narrative of one of these by itself apart, and still more +of its dimensions on an inch-rule, or in the exhibition of its skeleton, +or the specimen of a squirrel or a bird in brandy. He liked to speak of +the manners of the river, as itself a lawful creature, yet with exactness, +and always to an observed fact. As he knew the river, so the ponds in this +region. + +One of the weapons he used, more important than microscope or +alcohol-receiver to other investigators, was a whim which grew on him by +indulgence, yet appeared in gravest statement, namely, of extolling his +own town and neighborhood as the most favored centre for natural +observation. He remarked that the Flora of Massachusetts embraced almost +all the important plants of America,--most of the oaks, most of the +willows, the best pines, the ash, the maple, the beech, the nuts. He +returned Kane's "Arctic Voyage" to a friend of whom he had borrowed it, +with the remark, that "most of the phenomena noted might be observed in +Concord." He seemed a little envious of the Pole, for the coincident +sunrise and sunset, or five minutes' day after six months: a splendid +fact, which Annursnuc had never afforded him. He found red snow in one of +his walks, and told me that he expected to find yet the _Victoria regia_ +in Concord. He was the attorney of the indigenous plants, and owned to a +preference of the weeds to the imported plants, as of the Indian to the +civilized man,--and noticed, with pleasure, that the willow bean-poles of +his neighbor had grown more than his beans. "See these weeds," he said, +"which have been hoed at by a million farmers all spring and summer, and +yet have prevailed, and just now come out triumphant over all lanes, +pastures, fields, and gardens, such is their vigor. We have insulted them +with low names, too,--as Pigweed, Wormwood, Chickweed, Shad-Blossom." He +says, "They have brave names, too,--Ambrosia, Stellaria, Amelanchia, +Amaranth, etc." + +I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian of Concord did +not grow out of any ignorance or depreciation of other longitudes or +latitudes, but was rather a playful expression of his conviction of the +indifferency of all places, and that the best place for each is where he +stands. He expressed it once in this wise:--"I think nothing is to be +hoped from you, if this bit of mould under your feet is not sweeter to you +to eat than any other in this world, or in any world." + +The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was +patience. He knew how to sit immovable, a part of the rock he rested on, +until the bird, the reptile, the fish, which had retired from him, +should come back, and resume its habits, nay, moved by curiosity, should +come to him and watch him. + +It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country +like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own. +He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what creature had +taken this path before him. One must submit abjectly to such a guide, and +the reward was great. Under his arm he carried an old music-book to press +plants; in his pocket, his diary and pencil, a spy-glass for birds, +microscope, jack-knife, and twine. He wore straw hat, stout shoes, strong +gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and smilax, and to climb a tree for a +hawk's or a squirrel's nest. He waded into the pool for the water-plants, +and his strong legs were no insignificant part of his armor. On the day +I speak of he looked for the Menyanthes, detected it across the wide pool, +and, on examination of the florets, decided that it had been in flower +five days. He drew out of his breast-pocket his diary, and read the names +of all the plants that should bloom on this day, whereof he kept account +as a banker when his notes fall due. The Cypripedium not due till +to-morrow. He thought, that, if waked up from a trance, in this swamp, +he could tell by the plants what time of the year it was within two days. +The redstart was flying about, and presently the fine grosbeaks, whose +brilliant scarlet makes the rash gazer wipe his eye, and whose fine clear +note Thoreau compared to that of a tanager which has got rid of its +hoarseness. Presently he heard a note which he called that of the +night-warbler, a bird he had never identified, had been in search of +twelve years, which always, when he saw it, was in the act of diving down +into a tree or bush, and which it was vain to seek; the only bird that +sings indifferently by night and by day. I told him he must beware of +finding and booking it, lest life should have nothing more to show him. +He said, "What you seek in vain for, half your life, one day you come full +upon all the family at dinner. You seek it like a dream, and as soon as +you find it you become its prey." + +His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep in his mind, was +connected with Nature,--and the meaning of Nature was never attempted to +be defined by him. He would not offer a memoir of his observations to the +Natural History Society. "Why should I? To detach the description from its +connections in my mind would make it no longer true or valuable to me: and +they do not wish what belongs to it." His power of observation seemed to +indicate additional senses. He saw as with microscope, heard as with +ear-trumpet, and his memory was a photographic register of all he saw and +heard. And yet none knew better than he that it is not the fact that +imports, but the impression or effect of the fact on your mind. Every fact +lay in glory in his mind, a type of the order and beauty of the whole. +His determination on Natural History was organic. He confessed that he +sometimes felt like a hound or a panther, and, if born among Indians, +would have been a fell hunter. But, restrained by his Massachusetts +culture, he played out the game in this mild form of botany and +ichthyology. His intimacy with animals suggested what Thomas Fuller +records of Butler the apiologist, that "either he had told the bees things +or the bees had told him." Snakes coiled round his leg; the fishes swam +into his hand, and he took them out of the water; he pulled the woodchuck +out of its hole by the tail, and took the foxes under his protection from +the hunters. Our naturalist had perfect magnanimity; he had no secrets: he +would carry you to the heron's haunt, or even to his most prized botanical +swamp,--possibly knowing that you could never find it again, yet willing +to take his risks. + +No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor's chair; no academy +made him its corresponding secretary, its discoverer, or even its member. +Whether these learned bodies feared the satire of his presence. Yet so +much knowledge of Nature's secret and genius few others possessed, none in +a more large and religious synthesis. For not a particle of respect had he +to the opinions of any man or body of men, but homage solely to the truth +itself; and as he discovered everywhere among doctors some leaning of +courtesy, it discredited them. He grew to be revered and admired by his +townsmen, who had at first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who +employed him as a surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, +his knowledge of their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and +the like, which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before +of his own farm; so that he began to feel as if Mr. Thoreau had better +rights in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character +which addressed all men with a native authority. + +Indian relics abound in Concord,--arrow-heads, stone chisels, pestles, and +fragments of pottery; and on the river-bank, large heaps of clam-shells +and ashes mark spots which the savages frequented. These, and every +circumstance touching the Indian, were important in his eyes. His visits +to Maine were chiefly for love of the Indian. He had the satisfaction of +seeing the manufacture of the bark-canoe, as well as of trying his hand in +its management on the rapids. He was inquisitive about the making of the +stone arrow-head, and in his last days charged a youth setting out for the +Rocky Mountains to find an Indian who could tell him that: "It was well +worth a visit to California to learn it." Occasionally, a small party of +Penobscot Indians would visit Concord, and pitch their tents for a few +weeks in summer on the river-bank. He failed not to make acquaintance with +the best of them; though he well knew that asking questions of Indians is +like catechizing beavers and rabbits. In his last visit to Maine he had +great satisfaction from Joseph Polis, an intelligent Indian of Oldtown, +who was his guide for some weeks. + +He was equally interested in every natural fact. The depth of his +perception found likeness of law throughout Nature, and I know not any +genius who so swiftly inferred universal law from the single fact. He was +no pedant of a department. His eye was open to beauty, and his ear to +music. He found these, not in rare conditions, but wheresoever he went. +He thought the best of music was in single strains; and he found poetic +suggestion in the humming of the telegraph-wire. + +His poetry might be bad or good; he no doubt wanted a lyric facility and +technical skill; but he had the source of poetry in his spiritual +perception. He was a good reader and critic, and his judgment on poetry +was to the ground of it. He could not be deceived as to the presence or +absence of the poetic element in any composition, and his thirst for this +made him negligent and perhaps scornful of superficial graces. He would +pass by many delicate rhythms, but he would have detected every live +stanza or line in a volume, and knew very well where to find an equal +poetic charm in prose. He was so enamored of the spiritual beauty that +he held all actual written poems in very light esteem in the comparison. +He admired Aeschylus and Pindar; but, when some one was commending them, +he said that "Aeschylus and the Greeks, in describing Apollo and Orpheus, +had given no song, or no good one. They ought not to have moved trees, but +to have chanted to the gods such a hymn as would have sung all their old +ideas out of their heads, and new ones in." His own verses are often rude +and defective. The gold does not yet run pure, is drossy and crude. The +thyme and marjoram are not yet honey. But if he want lyric fineness and +technical merits, if he have not the poetic temperament, he never lacks +the causal thought, showing that his genius was better than his talent. +He knew the worth of the Imagination for the uplifting and consolation of +human life, and liked to throw every thought into a symbol. The fact you +tell is of no value, but only the impression. For this reason his presence +was poetic, always piqued the curiosity to know more deeply the secrets of +his mind. He had many reserves, an unwillingness to exhibit to profane +eyes what was still sacred in his own, and knew well how to throw a poetic +veil over his experience. All readers of "Walden" will remember his +mythical record of his disappointments:-- + +"I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtledove, and am still on +their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, +describing their tracks, and what calls they answered to. I have met one +or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen +the dove disappear behind a cloud; and they seemed as anxious to recover +them as if they had lost them themselves." ["Walden" p.20] + +His riddles were worth the reading, and I confide, that, if at any time I +do not understand the expression, it is yet just. Such was the wealth of +his truth that it was not worth his while to use words in vain. His poem +entitled "Sympathy" reveals the tenderness under that triple steel of +stoicism, and the intellectual subtilty it could animate. His classic poem +on "Smoke" suggests Simonides, but is better than any poem of Simonides. +His biography is in his verses. His habitual thought makes all his poetry +a hymn to the Cause of causes, the Spirit which vivifies and controls his +own. + + "I hearing get, who had but ears, + And sight, who had but eyes before; + I moments live, who lived but years, + And truth discern, who knew but learning's lore." + +And still more in these religious lines:-- + + "Now chiefly is my natal hour, + And only now my prime of life; + I will not doubt the love untold, + Which not my worth or want hath bought, + Which wooed me young, and wooes me old, + And to this evening hath me brought." + +Whilst he used in his writings a certain petulance of remark in reference +to churches or churchmen, he was a person of a rare, tender, and absolute +religion, a person incapable of any profanation, by act or by thought. Of +course, the same isolation which belonged to his original thinking and +living detached him from the social religious forms. This is neither to be +censured nor regretted. Aristotle long ago explained it, when he said, +"One who surpasses his fellow-citizens in virtue is no longer a part of +the city. Their law is not for him, since he is a law to himself." + +Thoreau was sincerity itself, and might fortify the convictions of +prophets in the ethical laws by his holy living. It was an affirmative +experience which refused to be set aside. A truth-speaker he, capable of +the most deep and strict conversation; a physician to the wounds of any +soul; a friend, knowing not only the secret of friendship, but almost +worshipped by those few persons who resorted to him as their confessor and +prophet, and knew the deep value of his mind and great heart. He thought +that without religion or devotion of some kind nothing great was ever +accomplished: and he thought that the bigoted sectarian had better bear +this in mind. + +His virtues, of course, sometimes ran into extremes. It was easy to trace +to the inexorable demand on all for exact truth that austerity which made +this willing hermit more solitary even than he wished. Himself of a +perfect probity, he required not less of others. He had a disgust at +crime, and no worldly success could cover it. He detected paltering as +readily in dignified and prosperous persons as in beggars, and with equal +scorn. Such dangerous frankness was in his dealing that his admirers +called him "that terrible Thoreau," as if he spoke when silent, and was +still present when he had departed. I think the severity of his ideal +interfered to deprive him of a healthy sufficiency of human society. + +The habit of a realist to find things the reverse of their appearance +inclined him to put every statement in a paradox. A certain habit of +antagonism defaced his earlier writings,--a trick of rhetoric not quite +outgrown in his later, of substituting for the obvious word and thought +its diametrical opposite. He praised wild mountains and winter forests for +their domestic air, in snow and ice he would find sultriness, and +commended the wilderness for resembling Rome and Paris. "It was so dry, +that you might call it wet." + +The tendency to magnify the moment, to read all the laws of Nature in the +one object or one combination under your eye, is of course comic to those +who do not share the philosopher's perception of identity. To him there +was no such thing as size. The pond was a small ocean; the Atlantic, a +large Walden Pond. He referred every minute fact to cosmical laws. Though +he meant to be just, he seemed haunted by a certain chronic assumption +that the science of the day pretended completeness, and he had just found +out that the _savans_ had neglected to discriminate a particular botanical +variety, had failed to describe the seeds or count the sepals. "That is to +say," we replied, "the blockheads were not born in Concord; but who said +they were? It was their unspeakable misfortune to be born in London, or +Paris, or Rome; but, poor fellows, they did what they could, considering +that they never saw Bateman's Pond, or Nine-Acre Corner, or Becky-Stow's +Swamp. Besides, what were you sent into the world for, but to add this +observation?" + +Had his genius been only contemplative, he had been fitted to his life, +but with his energy and practical ability he seemed born for great +enterprise and for command; and I so much regret the loss of his rare +powers of action, that I cannot help counting it a fault in him that he +had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all America, he +was the captain of a huckleberry party. Pounding beans is good to the end +of pounding empires one of these days; but if, at the end of years, it is +still only beans! + +But these foibles, real or apparent, were fast vanishing in the incessant +growth of a spirit so robust and wise, and which effaced its defeats with +new triumphs. His study of Nature was a perpetual ornament to him, and +inspired his friends with curiosity to see the world through his eyes, and +to hear his adventures. They possessed every kind of interest. + +He had many elegances of his own, whilst he scoffed at conventional +elegance. Thus, he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, the +grit of gravel; and therefore never willingly walked in the road, but in +the grass, on mountains and in woods. His senses were acute, and he +remarked that by night every dwelling-house gives out bad air, like a +slaughter-house. He liked the pure fragrance of melilot. He honored +certain plants with special regard, and, over all, the pond-lily,--then, +the gentian, and the _Mikania scandens_, and "life-everlasting," and a +bass-tree which he visited every year when it bloomed, in the middle of +July. He thought the scent a more oracular inquisition than the +sight,--more oracular and trustworthy. The scent, of course, reveals +what is concealed from the other senses. By it he detected earthiness. +He delighted in echoes, and said they were almost the only kind of kindred +voices that he heard. He loved Nature so well, was so happy in her +solitude, that he became very jealous of cities, and the sad work which +their refinements and artifices made with man and his dwelling. The axe +was always destroying his forest. "Thank God," he said, "they cannot cut +down the clouds!" "All kinds of figures are drawn on the blue ground with +this fibrous white paint." + +I subjoin a few sentences taken from his unpublished manuscripts, not only +as records of his thought and feeling, but for their power of description +and literary excellence. + +"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in +the milk." + +"The chub is a soft fish, and tastes like boiled brown paper salted." + +"The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, +perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged +man concludes to built a wood-shed with them." + +"The locust z-ing." + +"Devil's-needles zigzagging along the Nut-Meadow brook." + +"Sugar is not so sweet to the palate as sound to the healthy ear." + +"I put on some hemlock-boughs, and the rich salt crackling of their leaves +was like mustard to the ear, the crackling of uncountable regiments. Dead +trees love the fire." + +"The bluebird carries the sky on his back." + +"The tanager flies through the green foliage as if it would ignite the +leaves." + +"If I wish for a horse-hair for my compass-sight, I must go to the stable; +but the hair-bird, with her sharp eyes, goes to the road." + +"Immortal water, alive even to the superficies." + +"Fire is the most tolerable third party." + +"Nature made ferns for pure leaves, to show what she could do in that +line." + +"No tree has so fair a bole and so handsome an instep as the beech." + +"How did these beautiful rainbow-tints get into the shell of the +fresh-water clam, buried in the mud at the bottom of our dark river?" + +"Hard are the times when the infant's shoes are second-foot." + +"We are strictly confined to our men to whom we give liberty." + +"Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be +popular with God himself." + +"Of what significance the things you can forget? A little thought is +sexton to all the world." + +"How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seed-time of +character?" + +"Only he can be trusted with gifts who can present a face of bronze to +expectations." + +"I ask to be melted. You can only ask of the metals that they be tender to +the fire that melts them. To nought else can they be tender." + + * * * * * + +There is a flower known to botanists, one of the same genus with our +summer plant called "Life-Everlasting," a _Gnaphalium_ like that, which +grows on the most inaccessible cliffs of the Tyrolese mountains, where the +chamois dare hardly venture, and which the hunter, tempted by its beauty, +and by his love, (for it is immensely valued by the Swiss maidens,) climbs +the cliffs to gather, and is sometimes found dead at the foot, with the +flower in his hand. It is called by botanists the _Gnaphalium +leontopodium_, but by the Swiss _Edelweisse_, which signifies _Noble +Purity_. Thoreau seemed to me living in the hope to gather this plant, +which belonged to him of right. The scale on which his studies proceeded +was so large as to require longevity, and we were the less prepared for +his sudden disappearance. The country knows not yet, or in the least part, +how great a son it has lost. It seems an injury that he should leave in +the midst his broken task, which none else can finish,--a kind of +indignity to so noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature before +yet he has been really shown to his peers for what he is. But he, at +least, is content. His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a +short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is +knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will +find a home. + + + + EXCURSIONS. + + +NATURAL HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS. +[Footnote: _Reports--on the Fishes, Reptiles, and Birds; the Herbaceous +Plants and Quadrupeds; the Insects Injurious to Vegetation; and the +Invertebrate Animals of Massachusetts_. Published agreeably to an Order of +the Legislature, by the Commissioners on the Zooelogical and Botanical +Survey of the State.] +[1842.] + +Books of natural history make the most cheerful winter reading. I read +in Audubon with a thrill of delight, when the snow covers the ground, of +the magnolia, and the Florida keys, and their warm sea-breezes; of the +fence-rail, and the cotton-tree, and the migrations of the rice-bird; of +the breaking up of winter in Labrador, and the melting of the snow on the +forks of the Missouri; and owe an accession of health to these +reminiscences of luxuriant nature. + +Within the circuit of this plodding life, +There enter moments of an azure hue, +Untarnished fair as is the violet +Or anemone, when the spring strews them +By some meandering rivulet, which make +The best philosophy untrue that aims +But to console man for his grievances. +I have remembered when the winter came, +High in my chamber in the frosty nights, +When in the still light of the cheerful moon, +On every twig and rail and jutting spout, +The icy spears were adding to their length +Against the arrows of the coming sun, +How in the shimmering noon of summer past +Some unrecorded beam slanted across +The upland pastures where the Johnswort grew; +Or heard, amid the verdure of my mind, +The bee's long smothered hum, on the blue flag +Loitering amidst the mead; or busy rill, +Which now through all its course stands still and dumb +Its own memorial,--purling at its play +Along the slopes, and through the meadows next, +Until its youthful sound was hushed at last +In the staid current of the lowland stream; +Or seen the furrows shine but late upturned, +And where the fieldfare followed in the rear, +When all the fields around lay bound and hoar +Beneath a thick integument of snow. +So by God's cheap economy made rich +To go upon my winter's task again. + +I am singularly refreshed in winter when I hear of service-berries, +poke-weed, juniper. Is not heaven made up of these cheap summer glories? +There is a singular health in those words, Labrador and East Main, which +no desponding creed recognizes. How much more than Federal are these +States. If there were no other vicissitudes than the seasons, our interest +would never tire. Much more is adoing than Congress wots of. What journal +do the persimmon and the buckeye keep, and the sharp-shinned hawk? What is +transpiring from summer to winter in the Carolinas, and the Great Pine +Forest, and the Valley of the Mohawk? The merely political aspect of the +land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the +members of a political organization. On this side all lands present only +the symptoms of decay. I see but Bunker Hill and Sing-Sing, the District +of Columbia and Sullivan's Island, with a few avenues connecting them. But +paltry are they all beside one blast of the east or the south wind which +blows over them. + +In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at +least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid. +Society is always diseased, and the best is the most so. There is no scent +in it so wholesome as that of the pines, nor any fragrance so penetrating +and restorative as the life-everlasting in high pastures. I would keep +some book of natural history always by me as a sort of elixir, the reading +of which should restore the tone of the system. To the sick, indeed, +nature is sick, but to the well, a fountain of health. To him who +contemplates a trait of natural beauty no harm nor disappointment can +come. The doctrines of despair, of spiritual or political tyranny or +servitude, were never taught by such as shared the serenity of nature. +Surely good courage will not flag here on the Atlantic border, as long as +we are flanked by the Fur Countries. There is enough in that sound to +cheer one under any circumstances. The spruce, the hemlock, and the pine +will not countenance despair. Methinks some creeds in vestries and +churches do forget the hunter wrapped in furs by the Great Slave Lake, and +that the Esquimaux sledges are drawn by dogs, and in the twilight of the +northern night, the hunter does not give over to follow the seal and +walrus on the ice. They are of sick and diseased imaginations who would +toll the world's knell so soon. Cannot these sedentary sects do better +than prepare the shrouds and write the epitaphs of those other busy living +men? The practical faith of all men belies the preacher's consolation. +What is any man's discourse to me, if I am not sensible of something in it +as steady and cheery as the creak of crickets? In it the woods must be +relieved against the sky. Men tire me when I am not constantly greeted and +refreshed as by the flux of sparkling streams. Surely joy is the condition +of life. Think of the young fry that leap in ponds, the myriads of insects +ushered into being on a summer evening, the incessant note of the hyla +with which the woods ring in the spring, the nonchalance of the butterfly +carrying accident and change painted in a thousand hues upon its wings, or +the brook minnow stoutly stemming the current, the lustre of whose scales +worn bright by the attrition is reflected upon the bank. + +We fancy that this din of religion, literature, and philosophy, which is +heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, +and is as catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth's axle; but if a +man sleep soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn. It is +the three-inch swing of a pendulum in a cupboard, which the great pulse of +nature vibrates by and through each instant. When we lift our eyelids and +open our ears, it disappears with smoke and rattle like the cars on a +railroad. When I detect a beauty in any of the recesses of nature, I am +reminded, by the serene and retired spirit in which it requires to be +contemplated, of the inexpressible privacy of a life,--how silent and +unambitious it is. The beauty there is in mosses must be considered from +the holiest, quietest nook. What an admirable training is science for the +more active warfare of life. Indeed, the unchallenged bravery, which these +studies imply, is far more impressive than the trumpeted valor of the +warrior. I am pleased to learn that Thales was up and stirring by night +not unfrequently, as his astronomical discoveries prove. Linnaeus, setting +out for Lapland, surveys his "comb" and "spare shirt," "leathern breeches" +and "gauze cap to keep off gnats," with as much complacency as Bonaparte a +park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man +is admirable. His eye is to take in fish, flower, and bird, quadruped and +biped. Science is always brave, for to know, is to know good; doubt and +danger quail before her eye. What the coward overlooks in his hurry, she +calmly scrutinizes, breaking ground like a pioneer for the array of arts +that follow in her train. But cowardice is unscientific; for there cannot +be a science of ignorance. There may be a science of bravery, for that +advances; but a retreat is rarely well conducted; if it is, then is it an +orderly advance in the face of circumstances. + +But to draw a little nearer to our promised topics. Entomology extends the +limits of being in a new direction, so that I walk in nature with a sense +of greater space and freedom. It suggests besides, that the universe is +not rough-hewn, but perfect in its details. Nature will bear the closest +inspection; she invites us to lay our eye level with the smallest leaf, +and take an insect view of its plain. She has no interstices; every part +is full of life. I explore, too, with pleasure, the sources of the myriad +sounds which crowd the summer noon, and which seem the very grain and +stuff of which eternity is made. Who does not remember the shrill +roll-call of the harvest fly? There were ears for these sounds in Greece +long ago, as Anacreon's ode will show. + +"We pronounce thee happy, Cicada, +For on the tops of the trees, +Drinking a little dew, +Like any king thou singest, +For thine are they all, +Whatever thou seest in the fields, +And whatever the woods bear. +Thou art the friend of the husbandmen, +In no respect injuring any one; +And thou art honored among men, +Sweet prophet of summer. +The Muses love thee, +And Phoebus himself loves thee, +And has given thee a shrill song; +Age does not wrack thee, +Thou skilful, earthborn, song-loving, +Unsuffering, bloodless one; +Almost thou art like the gods." + +In the autumn days, the creaking of crickets is heard at noon over all the +land, and as in summer they are heard chiefly at nightfall, so then by +their incessant chirp they usher in the evening of the year. Nor can all +the vanities that vex the world alter one whit the measure that night has +chosen. Every pulse-beat is in exact time with the cricket's chant and the +tickings of the deathwatch in the wall. Alternate with these if you can. + +About two hundred and eighty birds either reside permanently in the State, +or spend the summer only, or make us a passing visit. Those which spend +the winter with us have obtained our warmest sympathy. The nut-hatch and +chicadee flitting in company through the dells of the wood, the one +harshly scolding at the intruder, the other with a faint lisping note +enticing him on; the jay screaming in the orchard; the crow cawing in +unison with the storm; the partridge, like a russet link extended over +from autumn to spring, preserving unbroken the chain of summers; the hawk +with warrior-like firmness abiding the blasts of winter; the robin +[Footnote: A white robin, and a white quail have occasionally been seen. +It is mentioned in Audubon as remarkable that the nest of a robin should +be found on the ground; but this bird seems to be less particular than +most in the choice of a building spot. I have seen its nest placed under +the thatched roof of a deserted barn, and in one instance, where the +adjacent country was nearly destitute of trees, together with two of the +phoebe, upon the end of a board in the loft of a saw-mill, but a few feet +from the saw, which vibrated several inches with the motion of the +machinery.] +and lark lurking by warm springs in the woods; the familiar snow-bird +culling a few seeds in the garden, or a few crumbs in the yard; and +occasionally the shrike, with heedless and unfrozen melody bringing back +summer again;-- + +His steady sails he never furls +At any time o' year, +And perching now on Winter's curls, +He whistles in his ear. + +As the spring advances, and the ice is melting in the river, our earliest +and straggling visitors make their appearance. Again does the old Teian +poet sing, as well for New England as for Greece, in the + +RETURN OF SPRING. + +"Behold, how Spring appearing, +The Graces send forth roses; +Behold, how the wave of the sea +Is made smooth by the calm; +Behold, how the duck dives; +Behold, how the crane travels; +And Titan shines constantly bright. +The shadows of the clouds are moving; +The works of man shine; +The earth puts forth fruits; +The fruit of the olive puts forth. +The cup of Bacchus is crowned, +Along the leaves, along the branches, +The fruit, bending them down, flourishes." + +The ducks alight at this season in the still water, in company with the +gulls, which do not fail to improve an east wind to visit our meadows, and +swim about by twos and threes, pluming themselves, and diving to peck at +the root of the lily, and the cranberries which the frost has not +loosened. The first flock of geese is seen beating to north, in long +harrows and waving lines; the gingle of the song-sparrow salutes us from +the shrubs and fences; the plaintive note of the lark comes clear and +sweet from the meadow; and the bluebird, like an azure ray, glances past +us in our walk. The fish-hawk, too, is occasionally seen at this season +sailing majestically over the water, and he who has once observed it will +not soon forget the majesty of its flight. It sails the air like a ship of +the line, worthy to struggle with the elements, falling back from time to +time like a ship on its beam ends, and holding its talons up as if ready +for the arrows, in the attitude of the national bird. It is a great +presence, as of the master of river and forest. Its eye would not quail +before the owner of the soil, but make him feel like an intruder on its +domains. And then its retreat, sailing so steadily away, is a kind of +advance. I have by me one of a pair of ospreys, which have for some years +fished in this vicinity, shot by a neighboring pond, measuring more than +two feet in length, and six in the stretch of its wings. Nuttall mentions +that "The ancients, particularly Aristotle, pretended that the ospreys +taught their young to gaze at the sun, and those who were unable to do so +were destroyed. Linnaeus even believed, on ancient authority, that one of +the feet of this bird had all the toes divided, while the other was partly +webbed, so that it could swim with one foot, and grasp a fish with the +other." But that educated eye is now dim, and those talons are nerveless. +Its shrill scream seems yet to linger in its throat, and the roar of the +sea in its wings. There is the tyranny of Jove in its claws, and his wrath +in the erectile feathers of the head and neck. It reminds me of the +Argonautic expedition, and would inspire the dullest to take flight over +Parnassus. + +The booming of the bittern, described by Goldsmith and Nuttall, is +frequently heard in our fens, in the morning and evening, sounding like +a pump, or the chopping of wood in a frosty morning in some distant +farm-yard. The manner in which this sound is produced I have not seen +anywhere described. On one occasion, the bird has been seen by one of my +neighbors to thrust its bill into the water, and suck up as much as it +could hold, then raising its head, it pumped it out again with four or +five heaves of the neck, throwing it two or three feet, and making the +sound each time. + +At length the summer's eternity is ushered in by the cackle of the flicker +among the oaks on the hill-side, and a new dynasty begins with calm +security. + +In May and June the woodland quire is in full tune, and given the immense +spaces of hollow air, and this curious human ear, one does not see how the +void could be better filled. + + Each summer sound + Is a summer round. + +As the season advances, and those birds which make us but a passing visit +depart, the woods become silent again, and but few feathers ruffle the +drowsy air. But the solitary rambler may still find a response and +expression for every mood in the depths of the wood. + +Sometimes-I hear the veery's[+] clarion, +Or brazen trump of the impatient jay, +And in secluded woods the chicadee +Doles out her scanty notes, which sing the praise +Of heroes, and set forth the loveliness +Of virtue evermore. + +[Footnote +: This bird, which is so well described by Nuttall, but is +apparently unknown by the author of the Report, is one of the most common +in the woods in this vicinity, and in Cambridge I have heard the college +yard ring with its trill. The boys call it "_yorrick_," from the sound of +its querulous and chiding note, as it flits near the traveller through the +underwood. The cowbird's egg is occasionally found in its nest, as +mentioned by Audubon.] + +The phoebe still sings in harmony with the sultry weather by the brink of +the pond, nor are the desultory hours of noon in the midst of the village +without their minstrel. + +Upon the lofty elm-tree sprays +The vireo rings the changes sweet, +During the trivial summer days, +Striving to lift our thoughts above the street. + +With the autumn begins in some measure a new spring. The plover is heard +whistling high in the air over the dry pastures, the finches flit from +tree to tree, the bobolinks and flickers fly in flocks, and the goldfinch +rides on the earliest blast, like a winged hyla peeping amid the rustle of +the leaves. The crows, too, begin now to congregate; you may stand and +count them as they fly low and straggling over the landscape, singly or by +twos and threes, at intervals of half a mile, until a hundred have passed. + +I have seen it suggested somewhere that the crow was brought to this +country by the white man; but I shall as soon believe that the white man +planted these pines and hemlocks. He is no spaniel to follow our steps; +but rather flits about the clearings like the dusky spirit of the Indian, +reminding me oftener of Philip and Powhatan, than of Winthrop and Smith. +He is a relic of the dark ages. By just so slight, by just so lasting a +tenure does superstition hold the world ever; there is the rook in +England, and the crow in New England. + +Thou dusky spirit of the wood, +Bird of an ancient brood, +Flitting thy lonely way, +A meteor in the summer's day, +From wood to wood, from hill to hill, +Low over forest, field, and rill, +What wouldst thou say? +Why shouldst thou haunt the day? +What makes thy melancholy float? +What bravery inspires thy throat, +And bears thee up above the clouds, +Over desponding human crowds, +Which far below +Lay thy haunts low? + +The late walker or sailor, in the October evenings, may hear the +murmurings of the snipe, circling over the meadows, the most spirit-like +sound in nature; and still later in the autumn, when the frosts have +tinged the leaves, a solitary loon pays a visit to our retired ponds, +where he may lurk undisturbed till the season of moulting is passed, +making the woods ring with his wild laughter. This bird, the Great +Northern Diver, well deserves its name; for when pursued with a boat, it +will dive, and swim like a fish under water, for sixty rods or more, as +fast as a boat can be paddled, and its pursuer, if he would discover his +game again, must put his ear to the surface to hear where it comes up. +When it comes to the surface, it throws the water off with one shake of +its wings, and calmly swims about until again disturbed. + +These are the sights and sounds which reach our senses oftenest during the +year. But sometimes one hears a quite new note, which has for background +other Carolinas and Mexicos than the books describe, and learns that his +ornithology has done him no service. + +It appears from the Report that there are about forty quadrupeds belonging +to the State, and among these one is glad to hear of a few bears, wolves, +lynxes, and wildcats. + +When our river overflows its banks in the spring, the wind from the +meadows is laden with a strong scent of musk, and by its freshness +advertises me of an unexplored wildness. Those backwoods are not far off +then. I am affected by the sight of the cabins of the musk-rat, made of +mud and grass, and raised three or four feet along the river, as when I +read of the barrows of Asia. The musk-rat is the beaver of the settled +States. Their number has even increased within a few years in this +vicinity. Among the rivers which empty into the Merrimack, the Concord is +known to the boatmen as a dead stream. The Indians are said to have called +it Musketaquid, or Prairie River. Its current being much more sluggish, +and its water more muddy than the rest, it abounds more in fish and game +of every kind. According to the History of the town, "The fur-trade was +here once very important. As early as 1641, a company was formed in the +colony, of which Major Willard of Concord was superintendent, and had the +exclusive right to trade with the Indians in furs and other articles; and +for this right they were obliged to pay into the public treasury one +twentieth of all the furs they obtained." There are trappers in our midst +still, as well as on the streams of the far West, who night and morning go +the round of their traps, without fear of the Indian. One of these takes +from one hundred and fifty to two hundred musk-rats in a year, and even +thirty-six have been shot by one man in a day. Their fur, which is not +nearly as valuable as formerly, is in good condition in the winter and +spring only; and upon the breaking up of the ice, when they are driven out +of their holes by the water, the greatest number is shot from boats, +either swimming or resting on their stools, or slight supports of grass +and reeds, by the side of the stream. Though they exhibit considerable +cunning at other times, they are easily taken in a trap, which has only to +be placed in their holes, or wherever they frequent, without any bait +being used, though it is sometimes rubbed with their musk. In the winter +the hunter cuts holes in the ice, and shoots them when they come to the +surface. Their burrows are usually in the high banks of the river, with +the entrance under water, and rising within to above the level of high +water. Sometimes their nests, composed of dried meadow grass and flags, +may be discovered where the bank is low and spongy, by the yielding of the +ground under the feet. They have from three to seven or eight young in the +spring. + +Frequently, in the morning or evening, a long ripple is seen in the still +water, where a musk-rat is crossing the stream, with only its nose above +the surface, and sometimes a green bough in its mouth to build its house +with. When it finds itself observed, it will dive and swim five or six +rods under water, and at length conceal itself in its hole, or the weeds. +It will remain under water for ten minutes at a time, and on one occasion +has been seen, when undisturbed, to form an air-bubble under the ice, +which contracted and expanded as it breathed at leisure. When it suspects +danger on shore, it will stand erect like a squirrel, and survey its +neighborhood for several minutes, without moving. + +In the fall, if a meadow intervene between their burrows and the stream, +they erect cabins of mud and grass, three or four feet high, near its +edge. These are not their breeding-places, though young are sometimes +found in them in late freshets, but rather their hunting-lodges, to which +they resort in the winter with their food, and for shelter. Their food +consists chiefly of flags and fresh-water muscles, the shells of the +latter being left in large quantities around their lodges in the spring. + +The Penobscot Indian wears the entire skin of a musk-rat, with the legs +and tail dangling, and the head caught under his girdle, for a pouch, into +which he puts his fishing tackle, and essences to scent his traps with. + +The bear, wolf, lynx, wildcat, deer, beaver, and marten, have disappeared; +the otter is rarely if ever seen here at present; and the mink is less +common than formerly. + +Perhaps of all our untamed quadrupeds, the fox has obtained the widest and +most familiar reputation, from the time of Pilpay and Aesop to the present +day. His recent tracks still give variety to a winter's walk. I tread in +the steps of the fox that has gone before me by some hours, or which +perhaps I have started, with such a tiptoe of expectation, as if I were on +the trail of the Spirit itself which resides in the wood, and expected +soon to catch it in its lair. I am curious to know what has determined its +graceful curvatures, and how surely they were coincident with the +fluctuations of some mind. I know which way a mind wended, what horizon it +faced, by the setting of these tracks, and whether it moved slowly or +rapidly, by their greater or less intervals and distinctness; for the +swiftest step leaves yet a lasting trace. Sometimes you will see the +trails of many together, and where they have gambolled and gone through a +hundred evolutions, which testify to a singular listlessness and leisure +in nature. + +When I see a fox run across the pond on the snow, with the carelessness of +freedom, or at intervals trace his course in the sunshine along the ridge +of a hill, I give up to him sun and earth as to their true proprietor. He +does not go in the sun, but it seems to follow him, and there is a visible +sympathy between him and it. Sometimes, when the snow lies light, and but +five or six inches deep, you may give chase and come up with one on foot. +In such a case he will show a remarkable presence of mind, choosing only +the safest direction, though he may lose ground by it. Notwithstanding his +fright, he will take no step which is not beautiful. His pace is a sort of +leopard canter, as if he were in nowise impeded by the snow, but were +husbanding his strength all the while. When the ground is uneven, the +course is a series of graceful curves, conforming to the shape of the +surface. He runs as though there were not a bone in his back. Occasionally +dropping his muzzle to the ground for a rod or two, and then tossing his +head aloft, when satisfied of his course. When he comes to a declivity, he +will put his forefeet together, and slide swiftly down it, shoving the +snow before him. He treads so softly that you would hardly hear it from +any nearness, and yet with such expression that it would not be quite +inaudible at any distance. + + * * * * * + +Of fishes, seventy-five genera and one hundred and seven species are +described in the Report. The fisherman will be startled to learn that +there are but about a dozen kinds in the ponds and streams of any inland +town; and almost nothing is known of their habits. Only their names and +residence make one love fishes. I would know even the number of their +fin-rays, and how many scales compose the lateral line. I am the wiser in +respect to all knowledges, and the better qualified for all fortunes, for +knowing that there is a minnow in the brook. Methinks I have need even of +his sympathy, and to be his fellow in a degree. + +I have experienced such simple delight in the trivial matters of fishing +and sporting, formerly, as might have inspired the muse of Homer or +Shakspeare; and now, when I turn the pages and ponder the plates of the +Angler's Souvenir, I am fain to exclaim,-- + + "Can these things be, + And overcome us like a summer's cloud?" + +Next to nature, it seems as if man's actions were the most natural, they +so gently accord with her. The small seines of flax stretched across the +shallow and transparent parts of our river, are no more intrusion than the +cobweb in the sun. I stay my boat in midcurrent, and look down in the +sunny water to see the civil meshes of his nets, and wonder how the +blustering people of the town could have done this elvish work. The twine +looks like a new river weed, and is to the river as a beautiful memento of +man's presence in nature, discovered as silently and delicately as a +footprint in the sand. + +When the ice is covered with snow, I do not suspect the wealth under my +feet; that there is as good as a mine under me wherever I go. How many +pickerel are poised on easy fin fathoms below the loaded wain. The +revolution of the seasons must be a curious phenomenon to them. At length +the sun and wind brush aside their curtain, and they see the heavens +again. + +Early in the spring, after the ice has melted, is the time for spearing +fish. Suddenly the wind shifts from northeast and east to west and south, +and every icicle, which has tinkled on the meadow grass so long, trickles +down its stem, and seeks its level unerringly with a million comrades. The +steam curls up from every roof and fence. + + I see the civil sun drying earth's tears, + Her tears of joy, which only faster flow. + +In the brooks is heard the slight grating sound of small cakes of ice, +floating with various speed, full of content and promise, and where the +water gurgles under a natural bridge, you may hear these hasty rafts hold +conversation in an undertone. Every rill is a channel for the juices of +the meadow. In the ponds the ice cracks with a merry and inspiriting din, +and down the larger streams is whirled grating hoarsely, and crashing its +way along, which was so lately a highway for the woodman's team and the +fox, sometimes with the tracks of the skaters still fresh upon it, and the +holes cut for pickerel. Town committees anxiously inspect the bridges and +causeways, as if by mere eye-force to intercede with the ice, and save the +treasury. + +The river swelleth more and more, +Like some sweet influence stealing o'er +The passive town; and for a while +Each tussuck makes a tiny isle, +Where, on some friendly Ararat, +Resteth the weary water-rat. + +No ripple shows Musketaquid, +Her very current e'en is hid, +As deepest souls do calmest rest, +When thoughts are swelling in the breast, +And she that in the summer's drought +Doth make a rippling and a rout, +Sleeps from Nabshawtuck to the Cliff, +Unruffled by a single skiff. +But by a thousand distant hills +The louder roar a thousand rills, +And many a spring which now is dumb, +And many a stream with smothered hum, +Doth swifter well and faster glide, +Though buried deep beneath the tide. + +Our village shows a rural Venice, +Its broad lagoons where yonder fen is; +As lovely as the Bay of Naples +Yon placid cove amid the maples; +And in my neighbor's field of corn +I recognize the Golden Horn. + +Here Nature taught from year to year, +When only red men came to hear, +Methinks 'twas in this school of art +Venice and Naples learned their part; +But still their mistress, to my mind, +Her young disciples leaves behind. + +The fisherman now repairs and launches his boat. The best time for +spearing is at this season, before the weeds have begun to grow, and while +the fishes lie in the shallow water, for in summer they prefer the cool +depths, and in the autumn they are still more or less concealed by the +grass. The first requisite is fuel for your crate; and for this purpose +the roots of the pitchpine are commonly used, found under decayed stumps, +where the trees have been felled eight or ten years. + +With a crate, or jack, made of iron hoops, to contain your fire, and +attached to the bow of your boat about three feet from the water, a +fish-spear with seven tines, and fourteen feet long, a large basket, or +barrow, to carry your fuel and bring back your fish, and a thick outer +garment, you are equipped for a cruise. It should be a warm and still +evening; and then with a fire crackling merrily at the prow, you may +launch forth like a cucullo into the night. The dullest soul cannot go +upon such an expedition without some of the spirit of adventure; as if +he had stolen the boat of Charon and gone down the Styx on a midnight +expedition into the realms of Pluto. And much speculation does this +wandering star afford to the musing nightwalker, leading him on and on, +jack-o'lantern-like, over the meadows; or, if he is wiser, he amuses +himself with imagining what of human life, far in the silent night, is +flitting mothlike round its candle. The silent navigator shoves his craft +gently over the water, with a smothered pride and sense of benefaction, as +if he were the phosphor, or light-bringer, to these dusky realms, or some +sister moon, blessing the spaces with her light. The waters, for a rod or +two on either hand and several feet in depth, are lit up with more than +noonday distinctness, and he enjoys the opportunity which so many have +desired, for the roofs of a city are indeed raised, and he surveys the +midnight economy of the fishes. There they lie in every variety of +posture; some on their backs, with their white bellies uppermost, some +suspended in midwater, some sculling gently along with a dreamy motion of +the fins, and others quite active and wide awake,--a scene not unlike what +the human city would present. Occasionally he will encounter a turtle +selecting the choicest morsels, or a musk-rat resting on a tussuck. He may +exercise his dexterity, if he sees fit, on the more distant and active +fish, or fork the nearer into his boat, as potatoes out of a pot, or even +take the sound sleepers with his hands. But these last accomplishments he +will soon learn to dispense with, distinguishing the real object of his +pursuit, and find compensation in the beauty and never-ending novelty of +his position. The pines growing down to the water's edge will show newly +as in the glare of a conflagration; and as he floats under the willows +with his light, the song-sparrow will often wake on her perch, and sing +that strain at midnight, which she had meditated for the morning. And when +he has done, he may have to steer his way home through the dark by the +north star, and he will feel himself some degrees nearer to it for having +lost his way on the earth. + +The fishes commonly taken in this way are pickerel, suckers, perch, eels, +pouts, breams, and shiners,--from thirty to sixty weight in a night. +Some are hard to be recognized in the unnatural light, especially the +perch, which, his dark bands being exaggerated, acquires a ferocious +aspect. The number of these transverse bands, which the Report states to +be seven, is, however, very variable, for in some of our ponds they have +nine and ten even. + + * * * * * + +It appears that we have eight kinds of tortoises, twelve snakes,--but one +of which is venomous,--nine frogs and toads, nine salamanders, and one +lizard, for our neighbors. + +I am particularly attracted by the motions of the serpent tribe. They make +our hands and feet, the wings of the bird, and the fins of the fish seems +very superfluous, as if nature had only indulged her fancy in making them. +The black snake will dart into a bush when pursued, and circle round and +round with an easy and graceful motion, amid the thin and bare twigs, five +or six feet from the ground, as a bird flits from bough to bough, or hang +in festoons between the forks. Elasticity and flexibleness in the simpler +forms of animal life are equivalent to a complex system of limbs in the +higher; and we have only to be as wise and wily as the serpent, to perform +as difficult feats without the vulgar assistance of hands and feet. + +In May, the snapping turtle, _Emysaurus serpentina,_ is frequently taken +on the meadows and in the river. The fisherman, taking sight over the calm +surface, discovers its snout projecting above the water, at the distance +of many rods, and easily secures his prey through its unwillingness to +disturb the water by swimming hastily away, for, gradually drawing its +head under, it remains resting on some limb or clump of grass. Its eggs, +which are buried at a distance from the water, in some soft place, as a +pigeon-bed, are frequently devoured by the skunk. It will catch fish by +daylight, as a toad catches flies, and is said to emit a transparent fluid +from its mouth to attract them. + +Nature has taken more care than the fondest parent for the education and +refinement of her children. Consider the silent influence which flowers +exert, no less upon the ditcher in the meadow than the lady in the bower. +When I walk in the woods, I am reminded that a wise purveyor has been +there before me; my most delicate experience is typified there. I am +struck with the pleasing friendships and unanimities of nature, as when +the lichen on the trees takes the form of their leaves. In the most +stupendous scenes you will see delicate and fragile features, as slight +wreaths of vapor, dewlines, feathery sprays, which suggest a high +refinement, a noble blood and breeding, as it were. It is not hard to +account for elves and fairies; they represent this light grace, this +ethereal gentility. Bring a spray from the wood, or a crystal from the +brook, and place it on your mantel, and your household ornaments will seem +plebeian beside its nobler fashion and bearing. It will wave superior +there, as if used to a more refined and polished circle. It has a salute +and a response to all your enthusiasm and heroism. + +In the winter, I stop short in the path to admire how the trees grow up +without forethought, regardless of the time and circumstances. They do not +wait as man does, but now is the golden age of the sapling. Earth, air, +sun, and rain, are occasion enough; they were no better in primeval +centuries. The "winter of _their_ discontent" never comes. Witness the +buds of the native poplar standing gayly out to the frost on the sides of +its bare switches. They express a naked confidence. With cheerful heart +one could be a sojourner in the wilderness, if he were sure to find there +the catkins of the willow or the alder. When I read of them in the +accounts of northern adventurers, by Baffin's Bay or Mackenzie's river, I +see how even there too I could dwell. They are our little vegetable +redeemers. Methinks our virtue will hold out till they come again. They +are worthy to have had a greater than Minerva or Ceres for their inventor. +Who was the benignant goddess that bestowed them on mankind? + +Nature is mythical and mystical always, and works with the license and +extravagance of genius. She has her luxurious and florid style as well as +art. Having a pilgrim's cup to make, she gives to the whole, stem, bowl, +handle, and nose, some fantastic shape, as if it were to be the car of +some fabulous marine deity, a Nereus or Triton. + +In the winter, the botanist needs not confine himself to his books and +herbarium, and give over his out-door pursuits, but may study a new +department of vegetable physiology, what may be called crystalline botany, +then. The winter of 1837 was unusually favorable for this. In December of +that year, the Genius of vegetation seemed to hover by night over its +summer haunts with unusual persistency. Such a hoarfrost, as is very +uncommon here or anywhere, and whose full effects can never be witnessed +after sunrise, occurred several times. As I went forth early on a still +and frosty morning, the trees looked like airy creatures of darkness +caught napping; on this side huddled together with their gray hairs +streaming in a secluded valley, which the sun had not penetrated; on that +hurrying off in Indian file along some watercourse, while the shrubs and +grasses, like elves and fairies of the night, sought to hide their +diminished heads in the snow. The river, viewed from the high bank, +appeared of a yellowish green color, though all the landscape was white. +Every tree, shrub, and spire of grass, that could raise its head above the +snow, was covered with a dense ice-foliage, answering, as it were, leaf +for leaf to its summer dress. Even the fences had put forth leaves in the +night. The centre, diverging, and more minute fibres were perfectly +distinct, and the edges regularly indented. These leaves were on the side +of the twig or stubble opposite to the sun, meeting it for the most part +at right angles, and there were others standing out at all possible angles +upon these and upon one another, with no twig or stubble supporting them. +When the first rays of the sun slanted over the scene, the grasses seemed +hung with innumerable jewels, which jingled merrily as they were brushed +by the foot of the traveller, and reflected all the hues of the rainbow +as he moved from side to side. It struck me that these ghost leaves, and +the green ones whose forms they assume, were the creatures of but one law; +that in obedience to the same law the vegetable juices swell gradually +into the perfect leaf, on the one hand, and the crystalline particles +troop to their standard in the same order, on the other. As if the +material were indifferent, but the law one and invariable, and every plant +in the spring but pushed up into and filled a permanent and eternal mould, +which, summer and winter forever, is waiting to be filled. + +This foliate structure is common to the coral and the plumage of birds, +and to how large a part of animate and inanimate nature. The same +independence of law on matter is observable in many other instances, as in +the natural rhymes, when some animal form, color, or odor, has its +counterpart in some vegetable. As, indeed, all rhymes imply an eternal +melody, independent of any particular sense. + +As confirmation of the fact, that vegetation is but a kind of +crystallization, every one may observe how, upon the edge of the melting +frost on the window, the needle-shaped particles are bundled together +so as to resemble fields waving with grain, or shocks rising here and +there from the stubble; on one side the vegetation of the torrid zone, +high-towering palms and widespread banyans, such as are seen in pictures +of oriental scenery; on the other, arctic pines stiff frozen, with +downcast branches. + +Vegetation has been made the type of all growth; but as in crystals the +law is more obvious, their material being more simple, and for the most +part more transient and fleeting, would it not be as philosophical as +convenient to consider all growth, all filling up within the limits of +nature, but a crystallization more or less rapid? + +On this occasion, in the side of the high bank of the river, wherever +the water or other cause had formed a cavity, its throat and outer edge, +like the entrance to a citadel, bristled with a glistening ice-armor. +In one place you might see minute ostrich-feathers, which seemed the +waving plumes of the warriors filing into the fortress; in another, the +glancing, fan-shaped banners of the Lilliputian host; and in another, the +needle-shaped particles collected into bundles, resembling the plumes of +the pine, might pass for a phalanx of spears. From the under side of the +ice in the brooks, where there was a thicker ice below, depended a mass of +crystallization, four or five inches deep, in the form of prisms, with +their lower ends open, which, when the ice was laid on its smooth side, +resembled the roofs and steeples of a Gothic city, or the vessels of a +crowded haven under a press of canvas. The very mud in the road, where the +ice had melted, was crystallized with deep rectilinear fissures, and the +crystalline masses in the sides of the ruts resembled exactly asbestos in +the disposition of their needles. Around the roots of the stubble and +flower-stalks, the frost was gathered into the form of irregular conical +shells, or fairy rings. In some places the ice-crystals were lying upon +granite rocks, directly over crystals of quartz, the frost-work of a +longer night, crystals of a longer period, but to some eye unprejudiced by +the short term of human life, melting as fast as the former. + +In the Report on the Invertebrate Animals, this singular fact is recorded, +which teaches us to put a new value on time and space. "The distribution +of the marine shells is well worthy of notice as a geological fact. Cape +Cod, the right arm of the Commonwealth, reaches out into the ocean, some +fifty or sixty miles. It is nowhere many miles wide; but this narrow point +of land has hitherto proved a barrier to the migrations of many species of +Mollusca. Several genera and numerous species, which are separated by the +intervention of only a few miles of land, are effectually prevented from +mingling by the Cape, and do not pass from one side to the other.... Of +the one hundred and ninety-seven marine species, eighty-three do not pass +to the south shore, and fifty are not found on the north shore of the +Cape." + +That common muscle, the _Unio complanalus_, or more properly +_fluviatilis_, left in the spring by the musk-rat upon rocks and stumps, +appears to have been an important article of food with the Indians. In one +place, where they are said to have feasted, they are found in large +quantities, at an elevation of thirty feet above the river, filling the +soil to the depth of a foot, and mingled with ashes and Indian remains. + +The works we have placed at the head of our chapter, with as much license, +as the preacher selects his text, are such as imply more labor than +enthusiasm. The State wanted complete catalogues of its natural riches, +with such additional facts merely as would be directly useful. + +The reports on Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, and Invertebrate Animals, +however, indicate labor and research, and have a value independent of the +object of the legislature. + +Those on Herbaceous Plants and Birds cannot be of much value, as long as +Bigelow and Nuttall are accessible. They serve but to indicate, with more +or less exactness, what species are found in the State. We detect several +errors ourselves, and a more practised eye would no doubt expand the list. + +The Quadrupeds deserved a more final and instructive report than they have +obtained. + +These volumes deal much in measurements and minute descriptions, not +interesting to the general reader, with only here and there a colored +sentence to allure him, like those plants growing in dark forests, which +bear only leaves without blossoms. But the ground was comparatively +unbroken, and we will not complain of the pioneer, if he raises no flowers +with his first crop. Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one +day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are +added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural +history of man himself is still being gradually written. Men are knowing +enough after their fashion. Every countryman and dairymaid knows that the +coats of the fourth stomach of the calf will curdle milk, and what +particular mushroom is a safe and nutritious diet. You cannot go into any +field or wood, but it will seem as if every stone had been turned, and the +bark on every tree ripped up. But, after all, it is much easier to +discover than to see when the cover is off! It has been well said that +"the attitude of inspection is prone." Wisdom does not inspect, but +behold. We must look a long time before we can see. Slow are the +beginnings of philosophy. He has something demoniacal in him, who can +discern a law or couple two facts. We can imagine a time when,--"Water +runs down hill,"--may have been taught in the schools. The true man of +science will know nature better by his finer organization; he will smell, +taste, see, hear, feel, better than other men. His will be a deeper and +finer experience. We do not learn by inference and deduction, and the +application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and +sympathy. It is with science as with ethics,--we cannot know truth by +contrivance and method; the Baconian is as false as any other, and with +all the helps of machinery and the arts, the most scientific will still be +the healthiest and friendliest man, and possess a more perfect Indian +wisdom. + + + +A WALK TO WACHUSETT. + +[1843.] + + The needles of the pine + All to the west incline. + +CONCORD, _July_ 19, 1842. + +Summer and winter our eyes had rested on the dim outline of the mountains +in our horizon, to which distance and indistinctness lent a grandeur not +their own, so that they served equally to interpret all the allusions of +poets and travellers; whether with Homer, on a spring morning, we sat down +on the many-peaked Olympus, or, with Virgil and his compeers, roamed the +Etrurian and Thessalian hills, or with Humboldt measured the more modern +Andes and Teneriffe. Thus we spoke our mind to them, standing on the +Concord cliffs.-- + +With frontier strength ye stand your ground, +With grand content ye circle round, +Tumultuous silence for all sound, +Ye distant nursery of rills, +Monadnock, and the Peterboro' hills; +Like some vast fleet, +Sailing through rain and sleet, +Through winter's cold and summer's heat; +Still holding on, upon your high emprise, +Until ye find a shore amid the skies; +Not skulking close to land, +With cargo contraband. +For they who sent a venture out by ye +Have set the sun to see +Their honesty. +Ships of the line, each one, +Ye to the westward run, +Always before the gale, +Under a press of sail, +With weight of metal all untold. +I seem to feel ye, in my firm seat here, +Immeasurable depth of hold, +And breadth of beam, and length of running gear. + +Methinks ye take luxurious pleasure +In your novel western leisure; +So cool your brows, and freshly blue, +As Time had nought for ye to do; +For ye lie at your length, +An unappropriated strength, +Unhewn primeval timber, +For knees so stiff, for masts so limber; +The stock of which new earths are made, +One day to be our western trade, +Fit for the stanchions of a world +Which through the seas of space is hurled. + +While we enjoy a lingering ray, +Ye still o'ertop the western day, +Reposing yonder, on God's croft, +Like solid stacks of hay. +Edged with silver, and with gold, +The clouds hang o'er in damask fold, +And with such depth of amber light +The west is dight, +Where still a few rays slant, +That even heaven seems extravagant. +On the earth's edge mountains and trees +Stand as they were on air graven, +Or as the vessels in a haven +Await the morning breeze. +I fancy even +Through your defiles windeth the way to heaven; +And yonder still, in spite of history's page, +Linger the golden and the silver age; +Upon the laboring gale +The news of future centuries is brought, +And of new dynasties of thought, +From your remotest vale. + +But special I remember thee, +Wachusett, who like me +Standest alone without society. +Thy far blue eye, +A remnant of the sky, +Seen through the clearing or the gorge, +Or from the windows on the forge, +Doth leaven all it passes by. +Nothing is true, +But stands 'tween me and you, +Thou western pioneer, +Who know'st not shame nor fear, +By venturous spirit driven, +Under the eaves of heaven, +And can'st expand thee there, +And breathe enough of air? +Upholding heaven, holding down earth, +Thy pastime from thy birth, +Not steadied by the one, nor leaning on the other; +May I approve myself thy worthy brother! + +At length, like Rasselas, and other inhabitants of happy valleys, we +resolved to scale the blue wall which bound the western horizon, though +not without misgivings, that thereafter no visible fairy land would exist +for us. But we will not leap at once to our journey's end, though near, +but imitate Homer, who conducts his reader over the plain, and along the +resounding sea, though it be but to the tent of Achilles. In the spaces of +thought are the reaches of land and water, where men go and come. The +landscape lies far and fair within, and the deepest thinker is the +farthest travelled. + +At a cool and early hour on a pleasant morning in July, my companion and I +passed rapidly through Acton and Stow, stopping to rest and refresh us on +the bank of a small stream, a tributary of the Assabet, in the latter +town. As we traversed the cool woods of Acton, with stout staves in our +hands, we were cheered by the song of the red-eye, the thrushes, the +phoebe, and the cuckoo; and as we passed through the open country, we +inhaled the fresh scent of every field, and all nature lay passive, to be +viewed and travelled. Every rail, every farm-house, seen dimly in the +twilight, every tinkling sound told of peace and purity, and we moved +happily along the dank roads, enjoying not such privacy as the day leaves +when it withdraws, but such as it has not profaned. It was solitude with +light; which is better than darkness. But anon, the sound of the mower's +rifle was heard in the fields, and this, too, mingled with the lowing +kine. + +This part of our route lay through the country of hops, which plant +perhaps supplies the want of the vine in American scenery, and may remind +the traveller of Italy, and the South of France, whether he traverses the +country when the hop-fields, as then, present solid and regular masses of +verdure, hanging in graceful festoons from pole to pole; the cool coverts +where lurk the gales which refresh the wayfarer; or in September, when the +women and children, and the neighbors from far and near, are gathered to +pick the hops into long troughs; or later still, when the poles stand +piled in vast pyramids in the yards, or lie in heaps by the roadside. + +The culture of the hop, with the processes of picking, drying in the kiln, +and packing for the market, as well as the uses to which it is applied, +so analogous to the culture and uses of the grape, may afford a theme for +future poets. + +The mower in the adjacent meadow could not tell us the name of the brook +on whose banks we had rested, or whether it had any, but his younger +companion, perhaps his brother, knew that it was Great Brook. Though they +stood very near together in the field, the things they knew were very far +apart; nor did they suspect each other's reserved knowledge, till the +stranger came by. In Bolton, while we rested on the rails of a cottage +fence, the strains of music which issued from within, probably in +compliment to us, sojourners, reminded us that thus far men were fed by +the accustomed pleasures. So soon did we, wayfarers, begin to learn that +man's life is rounded with the same few facts, the same simple relations +everywhere, and it is vain to travel to find it new. The flowers grow more +various ways than he. But coming soon to higher land, which afforded a +prospect of the mountains, we thought we had not travelled in vain, if it +were only to hear a truer and wilder pronunciation of their names, from +the lips of the inhabitants; not _Way_-tatic, _Way_-chusett, but +_Wor_-tatic, _Wor_-chusett. It made us ashamed of our tame and civil +pronunciation, and we looked upon them as born and bred farther west than +we. Their tongues had a more generous accent than ours, as if breath was +cheaper where they wagged. A countryman, who speaks but seldom, talks +copiously, as it were, as his wife sets cream and cheese before you +without stint. Before noon we had reached the highlands overlooking the +valley of Lancaster, (affording the first fair and open prospect into the +west,) and there, on the top of a hill, in the shade of some oaks, near to +where a spring bubbled out from a leaden pipe, we rested during the heat +of the day, reading Virgil, and enjoying the scenery. It was such a place +as one feels to be on the outside of the earth, for from it we could, in +some measure, see the form and structure of the globe. There lay +Wachusett, the object of our journey, lowering upon us with unchanged +proportions, though with a less ethereal aspect than had greeted our +morning gaze, while further north, in successive order, slumbered its +sister mountains along the horizon. + +We could get no further into the Aeneid than + + --atque altae moenia Romae, + --and the wall of high Rome, + +before we were constrained to reflect by what myriad tests a work of +genius has to be tried; that Virgil, away in Rome, two thousand years off, +should have to unfold his meaning, the inspiration of Italian vales, to +the pilgrim on New England hills. This life so raw and modern, that so +civil and ancient; and yet we read Virgil, mainly to be reminded of the +identity of human nature in all ages, and, by the poet's own account, we +are both the children of a late age, and live equally under the reign of +Jupiter. + +"He shook honey from the leaves, and removed fire, +And stayed the wine, everywhere flowing in rivers; +That experience, by meditating, might invent various arts +By degrees, and seek the blade of corn in furrows, +And strike out hidden fire from the veins of the flint." + +The old world stands serenely behind the new, as one mountain yonder +towers behind another, more dim and distant. Rome imposes her story still +upon this late generation. The very children in the school we had that +morning passed, had gone through her wars, and recited her alarms, ere +they had heard of the wars of neighboring Lancaster. The roving eye still +rests inevitably on her hills, and she still holds up the skirts of the +sky on that side, and makes the past remote. + +The lay of the land hereabouts is well worthy the attention of the +traveller. The hill on which we were resting made part of an extensive +range, running from southwest to northeast, across the country, and +separating the waters of the Nashua from those of the Concord, whose banks +we had left in the morning; and by bearing in mind this fact, we could +easily determine whither each brook was bound that crossed our path. +Parallel to this, and fifteen miles further west, beyond the deep and +broad valley in which lie Groton, Shirley, Lancaster, and Boylston, runs +the Wachusett range, in the same general direction. The descent into the +valley on the Nashua side, is by far the most sudden; and a couple of +miles brought us to the southern branch of the Nashua, a shallow but rapid +stream, flowing between high and gravelly banks. But we soon learned that +there were no _gelidae valles_ into which we had descended, and missing +the coolness of the morning air, feared it had become the sun's turn to +try his power upon us. + + "The sultry sun had gained the middle sky, + And not a tree, and not an herb was nigh." + +and with melancholy pleasure we echoed the melodious plaint of our +fellow-traveller, Hassan, in the desert,-- + + "Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day, + When first from Schiraz' walls I bent my way." + +The air lay lifeless between the hills, as in a seething caldron, with no +leaf stirring, and instead of the fresh odor of grass and clover, with +which we had before been regaled, the dry scent of every herb seemed +merely medicinal. Yielding, therefore, to the heat, we strolled into the +woods, and along the course of a rivulet, on whose banks we loitered, +observing at our leisure the products of these new fields. He who +traverses the woodland paths, at this season, will have occasion to +remember the small drooping bell-like flowers and slender red stem of the +dogs-bane, and the coarser stem and berry of the poke, which are both +common in remoter and wilder scenes; and if "the sun casts such a +reflecting heat from the sweet fern," as makes him faint, when he is +climbing the bare hills, as they complained who first penetrated into +these parts, the cool fragrance of the swamp pink restores him again, when +traversing the valleys between. + +As we went on our way late in the afternoon, we refreshed ourselves by +bathing our feet in every rill that crossed the road, and anon, as we were +able to walk in the shadows of the hills, recovered our morning +elasticity. Passing through Sterling, we reached the banks of the +Stillwater, in the western part of the town, at evening, where is a small +village collected. We fancied that there was already a certain western +look about this place, a smell of pines and roar of water, recently +confined by dams, belying its name, which were exceedingly grateful. When +the first inroad has been made, a few acres levelled, and a few houses +erected, the forest looks wilder than ever. Left to herself, nature is +always more or less civilized, and delights in a certain refinement; but +where the axe has + +encroached upon the edge of the forest, the dead and unsightly limbs of +the pine, which she had concealed with green banks of verdure, are exposed +to sight. This village had, as yet, no post-office, nor any settled name. +In the small villages which we entered, the villagers gazed after us, with +a complacent, almost compassionate look, as if we were just making our +_debut_ in the world at a late hour. "Nevertheless," did they seem to say, +"come and study us, and learn men and manners." So is each one's world but +a clearing in the forest, so much open and inclosed ground. The landlord +had not yet returned from the field with his men, and the cows had yet to +be milked. But we remembered the inscription on the wall of the Swedish +inn, "You will find at Trolhate excellent bread, meat, and wine, provided +you bring them with you," and were contented. But I must confess it did +somewhat disturb our pleasure, in this withdrawn spot, to have our own +village newspaper handed us by our host, as if the greatest charm the +country offered to the traveller was the facility of communication with +the town. Let it recline on its own everlasting hills, and not be looking +out from their summits for some petty Boston or New York in the horizon. + +At intervals we heard the murmuring of water, and the slumberous breathing +of crickets throughout the night; and left the inn the next morning in the +gray twilight, after it had been hallowed by the night air, and when only +the innocent cows were stirring, with a kind of regret. It was only four +miles to the base of the mountain, and the scenery was already more +picturesque. Our road lay along the course of the Stillwater, which was +brawling at the bottom of a deep ravine, filled with pines and rocks, +tumbling fresh from the mountains, so soon, alas! to commence its career +of usefulness. At first, a cloud hung between us and the summit, but it +was soon blown away. As we gathered the raspberries, which grew abundantly +by the roadside, we fancied that that action was consistent with a lofty +prudence, as if the traveller who ascends into a mountainous region should +fortify himself by eating of such light ambrosial fruits as grow there; +and, drinking of the springs which gush out from the mountain sides, as he +gradually inhales the subtler and purer atmosphere of those elevated +places, thus propitiating the mountain gods, by a sacrifice of their own +fruits. The gross products of the plains and valleys are for such as dwell +therein; but it seemed to us that the juices of this berry had relation to +the thin air of the mountain-tops. + +In due time we began to ascend the mountain, passing, first, through a +grand sugar maple wood, which bore the marks of the augur, then a denser +forest, which gradually became dwarfed, till there were no trees whatever. +We at length pitched our tent on the summit. It is but nineteen hundred +feet above the village of Princeton, and three thousand above the level of +the sea; but by this slight elevation it is infinitely removed from the +plain, and when we reached it, we felt a sense of remoteness, as if we had +travelled into distant regions, to Arabia Petrea, or the farthest east. A +robin upon a staff, was the highest object in sight. Swallows were flying +about us, and the chewink and cuckoo were heard near at hand. The summit +consists of a few acres, destitute of trees, covered with bare rocks, +interspersed with blueberry bushes, raspberries, gooseberries, +strawberries, moss, and a fine wiry grass. The common yellow lily, and +dwarf-cornel, grow abundantly in the crevices of the rocks. This clear +space, which is gently rounded, is bounded a few feet lower by a thick +shrubbery of oaks, with maples, aspens, beeches, cherries, and +occasionally a mountain-ash intermingled, among which we found the bright +blueberries of the Solomon's Seal, and the fruit of the pyrola. From the +foundation of a wooden observatory, which was formerly erected on the +highest point, forming a rude, hollow structure of stone, a dozen feet in +diameter, and five or six in height, we could see Monadnock, in simple +grandeur, in the northwest, rising nearly a thousand feet higher, still +the "far blue mountain," though with an altered profile. The first day the +weather was so hazy that it was in vain we endeavored to unravel the +obscurity. It was like looking into the sky again, and the patches of +forest here and there seemed to flit like clouds over a lower heaven. As +to voyagers of an aerial Polynesia, the earth seemed like a larger island +in the ether; on every side, even as low as we, the sky shutting down, +like an unfathomable deep, around it, a blue Pacific island, where who +knows what islanders inhabit? and as we sail near its shores we see the +waving of trees, and hear the lowing of kine. + +We read Virgil and Wordsworth in our tent, with new pleasure there, while, +waiting for a clearer atmosphere, nor did the weather prevent our +appreciating the simple truth and beauty of Peter Bell: + +"And he had lain beside his asses, + On lofty Cheviot hills." + +"And he had trudged through Yorkshire dales, + Among the rocks and winding _scars_, + Where deep and low the hamlets lie + Beneath their little patch of sky, + And little lot of stars." + +Who knows but this hill may one day be a Helvellyn, or even a Parnassus, +and the Muses haunt here, and other Homers frequent the neighboring +plains, + +Not unconcerned Wachusett rears his head + Above the field, so late from nature won, +With patient brow reserved, as one who read + New annals in the history of man. + +The blue-berries which the mountain afforded, added to the milk we had +brought, made our frugal supper, while for entertainment the evensong of +the wood-thrush rung along the ridge. Our eyes rested on no painted +ceiling nor carpeted hall, but on skies of nature's painting, and hills +and forests of her embroidery. Before sunset, we rambled along the ridge +to the north, while a hawk soared still above us. It was a place where +gods might wander, so solemn and solitary, and removed from all contagion +with the plain. As the evening came on, the haze was 'condensed in vapor, +and the landscape became more distinctly visible, and numerous sheets of +water were brought to light. + +Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant, +Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. + +And now the tops of the villas smoke afar off, +And the shadows fall longer from the high mountains. + +As we stood on the stone tower while the sun was setting, we saw the +shades of night creep gradually over the valleys of the east, and the +inhabitants went into their houses, and shut their doors, while the moon +silently rose up, and took possession of that part. And then the same +scene was repeated on the west side, as far as the Connecticut and the +Green Mountains, and the sun's rays fell on us two alone, of all New +England men. + +It was the night but one before the full of the moon, so bright that we +could see to read distinctly by moonlight, and in the evening strolled +over the summit without danger. There was, by chance, a fire blazing on +Monadnock that night, which lighted up the whole western horizon, and by +making us aware of a community of mountains, made our position seem less +solitary. But at length the wind drove us to the shelter of our tent, and +we closed its door for the night, and fell asleep. + +It was thrilling to hear the wind roar over the rocks, at intervals when +we waked, for it had grown quite cold and windy. The night was in its +elements, simple even to majesty in that bleak place,--a bright moonlight +and a piercing wind. It was at no time darker than twilight within the +tent, and we could easily see the moon through its transparent roof as we +lay; for there was the moon still above us, with Jupiter and Saturn on +either hand, looking down on Wachusett, and it was a satisfaction to know +that they were our fellow-travellers still, as high and out of our reach +as our own destiny. Truly the stars were given for a consolation to man. +We should not know but our life were fated to be always grovelling, but it +is permitted to behold them, and surely they are deserving of a fair +destiny. We see laws which never fail, of whose failure we never +conceived; and their lamps burn all the night, too, as well as all day,-- +so rich and lavish is that nature which can afford this superfluity of +light. + +The morning twilight began as soon as the moon had set, and we arose and +kindled our fire, whose blaze might have been seen for thirty miles +around. As the daylight increased, it was remarkable how rapidly the wind +went down. There was no dew on the summit, but coldness supplied its +place. When the dawn had reached its prime, we enjoyed the view of a +distinct horizon line, and could fancy ourselves at sea, and the distant +hills the waves in the horizon, as seen from the deck of a vessel. The +cherry-birds flitted around us, the nuthatch and flicker were heard among +the bushes, the titmouse perched within a few feet, and the song of the +wood-thrush again rung along the ridge. At length we saw the sun rise up +out of the sea, and shine on Massachusetts; and from this moment the +atmosphere grew more and more transparent till the time of our departure, +and we began to realize the extent of the view, and how the earth, in some +degree, answered to the heavens in breadth, the white villages to the +constellations in the sky. There was little of the sublimity and grandeur +which belong to mountain scenery, but an immense landscape to ponder on a +summer's day. We could see how ample and roomy is nature. As far as the +eye could reach, there was little life in the landscape; the few birds +that flitted past did not crowd. The travellers on the remote highways, +which intersect the country on every side, had no fellow-travellers for +miles, before or behind. On every side, the eye ranged over successive +circles of towns, rising one above another, like the terraces of a +vineyard, till they were lost in the horizon. Wachusett is, in fact, the +observatory of the State. There lay Massachusetts, spread out before us in +its length and breadth, like a map. There was the level horizon, which +told of the sea on the east and south, the well-known hills of New +Hampshire on the north, and the misty summits of the Hoosac and Green +Mountains, first made visible to us the evening before, blue and +unsubstantial, like some bank of clouds which the morning wind would +dissipate, on the northwest and west. These last distant ranges, on which +the eye rests unwearied, commence with an abrupt boulder in the north, +beyond the Connecticut, and travel southward, with three or four peaks +dimly seen. But Monadnock, rearing its masculine front in the northwest, +is the grandest feature. As we beheld it, we knew that it was the height +of land between the two rivers, on this side the valley of the Merrimack, +or that of the Connecticut, fluctuating with their blue seas of +air,--these rival vales, already teeming with Yankee men along their +respective streams, born to what destiny who shall tell? Watatic, and the +neighboring hills in this State and in New Hampshire, are a continuation +of the same elevated range on which we were standing. But that New +Hampshire bluff,--that promontory of a State,--lowering day and night on +this our State of Massachusetts, will longest haunt our dreams. + +We could, at length, realize the place mountains occupy on the land, and +how they come into the general scheme of the universe. When first we climb +their summits and observe their lesser irregularities, we do not give +credit to the comprehensive intelligence which shaped them; but when +afterward we behold their outlines in the horizon, we confess that the +hand which moulded their opposite slopes, making one to balance the other, +worked round a deep centre, and was privy to the plan of the universe. So +is the least part of nature in its bearings referred to all space. These +lesser mountain ranges, as well as the Alleghanies, run from northeast to +southwest, and parallel with these mountain streams are the more fluent +rivers, answering to the general direction of the coast, the bank of the +great ocean stream itself. Even the clouds, with their thin bars, fall +into the same direction by preference, and such even is the course of the +prevailing winds, and the migration of men and birds. A mountain-chain +determines many things for the statesman and philosopher. The improvements +of civilization rather creep along its sides than cross its summit. How +often is it a barrier to prejudice and fanaticism? In passing over these +heights of land, through their thin atmosphere, the follies of the plain +are refined and purified; and as many species of plants do not scale their +summits, so many species of folly no doubt do not cross the Alleghanies; +it is only the hardy mountain plant that creeps quite over the ridge, and +descends into the valley beyond. + +We get a dim notion of the flight of birds, especially of such as fly high +in the air, by having ascended a mountain. We can now see what landmarks +mountains are to their migrations; how the Catskills and Highlands have +hardly sunk to them, when Wachusett and Monadnock open a passage to the +northeast; how they are guided, too, in their course by the rivers and +valleys; and who knows but by the stars, as well as the mountain ranges, +and not by the petty landmarks which we use. The bird whose eye takes in +the Green Mountains on the one side, and the ocean on the other, need not +be at a loss to find its way. + +At noon we descended the mountain, and having returned to the abodes of +men, turned our faces to the east again; measuring our progress, from time +to time, by the more ethereal hues which the mountain assumed. Passing +swiftly through Stillwater and Sterling, as with a downward impetus, we +found ourselves almost at home again in the green meadows of Lancaster, so +like our own Concord, for both are watered by two streams which unite near +their centres, and have many other features in common. There is an +unexpected refinement about this scenery; level prairies of great extent, +interspersed with elms and hop-fields and groves of trees, give it almost +a classic appearance. This, it will be remembered, was the scene of Mrs. +Kowlandson's capture, and of other events in the Indian wars, but from +this July afternoon, and under that mild exterior, those times seemed as +remote as the irruption of the Goths. They were the dark age of New +England. On beholding a picture of a New England village as it then +appeared, with a fair open prospect, and a light on trees and river, as if +it were broad noon, we find we had not thought the sun shone in those +days, or that men lived in broad daylight then. We do not imagine the sun +shining on hill and valley during Philip's war, nor on the war-path of +Paugus, or Standish, or Church, or Lovell, with serene summer weather, but +a dim twilight or night did those events transpire in. They must have +fought in the shade of their own dusky deeds. + +At length, as we plodded along the dusty roads, our thoughts became as +dusty as they; all thought indeed stopped, thinking broke down, or +proceeded only passively in a sort of rhythmical cadence of the confused +material of thought, and we found ourselves mechanically repeating some +familiar measure which timed with our tread; some verse of the Robin Hood +ballads, for instance, which one can recommend to travel by. + +"Swearers are swift, sayd lyttle John, +As the wind blows over the hill; +For if it be never so loud this night, +To-morrow it may be still." + +And so it went up hill and down till a stone interrupted the line, when a +new verse was chosen. + +"His shoote it was but loosely shot, + Yet flewe not the arrowe in vaine, +For it met one of the sheriffe's men, + And William-a-Trent was slaine." + +There is, however, this consolation to the most way-worn traveller, upon +the dustiest road, that the path his feet describe is so perfectly +symbolical of human life,--now climbing the hills, now descending into the +vales. From the summits he beholds the heavens and the horizon, from the +vales he looks up to the heights again. He is treading his old lessons +still, and though he may be very weary and travel-worn, it is yet sincere +experience. + +Leaving the Nashua, we changed our route a little, and arrived at +Stillriver Village, in the western part of Harvard, just as the sun was +setting. From this place, which lies to the northward, upon the western +slope of the same range of hills on which we had spent the noon before, in +the adjacent town, the prospect is beautiful, and the grandeur of the +mountain outlines unsurpassed. There was such a repose and quiet here at +this hour, as if the very hill-sides were enjoying the scene, and we +passed slowly along, looking back over the country we had traversed, and +listening to the evening song of the robin, we could not help contrasting +the equanimity of nature with the bustle and impatience of man. His words +and actions presume always a crisis near at hand, but she is forever +silent and unpretending. + +And now that we have returned to the desultory life of the plain, let us +endeavor to import a little of that mountain grandeur into it. We will +remember within what walls we lie, and understand that this level life too +has its summit, and why from the mountain-top the deepest valleys have a +tinge of blue; that there is elevation in every hour, as no part of the +earth is so low that the heavens may not be seen from, and we have only to +stand on the summit of our hour to command an uninterrupted horizon. + +We rested that night at Harvard, and the next morning, while one bent his +steps to the nearer village of Groton, the other took his separate and +solitary way to the peaceful meadows of Concord; but let him not forget to +record the brave hospitality of a farmer and his wife, who generously +entertained him at their board, though the poor wayfarer could only +congratulate the one on the continuance of hayweather, and silently accept +the kindness of the other. Refreshed by this instance of generosity, no +less than by the substantial viands set before him, he pushed forward with +new vigor, and reached the banks of the Concord before the sun had climbed +many degrees into the heavens. + + + +THE LANDLORD. + +[1843.] + + +Under the one word, house, are included the school-house, the alms-house, +the jail, the tavern, the dwelling-house; and the meanest shed or cave in +which men live contains the elements of all these. But nowhere on the +earth stands the entire and perfect house. The Parthenon, St. Peter's, the +Gothic minster, the palace, the hovel, are but imperfect executions of an +imperfect idea. Who would dwell in them? Perhaps to the eye of the gods, +the cottage is more holy than the Parthenon, for they look down with no +especial favor upon the shrines formally dedicated to them, and that +should be the most sacred roof which shelters most of humanity. Surely, +then, the gods who are most interested in the human race preside over the +Tavern, where especially men congregate. Methinks I see the thousand +shrines erected to Hospitality shining afar in all countries, as well +Mahometan and Jewish, as Christian, khans, and caravansaries, +and inns, whither all pilgrims without distinction resort. + +Likewise we look in vain, east or west over the earth, to find the perfect +man; but each represents only some particular excellence. The Landlord is +a man of more open and general sympathies, who possesses a spirit of +hospitality which is its own reward, and feeds and shelters men from pure +love of the creatures. To be sure, this profession is as often filled by +imperfect characters, and such as have sought it from unworthy motives, as +any other, but so much the more should we prize the true and honest +Landlord when we meet with him. + +Who has not imagined to himself a country inn, where the traveller shall +really feel _in_, and at home, and at his public-house, who was before at +his private house; whose host is indeed a _host_, and a _lord_ of the +_land_, a self-appointed brother of his race; called to his place, beside, +by all the winds of heaven and his good genius, as truly as the preacher +is called to preach; a man of such universal sympathies, and so broad and +genial a human nature, that he would fain sacrifice the tender but narrow +ties of private friendship, to a broad, sunshiny, fair-weather-and-foul +friendship for his race; who loves men, not as a philosopher, with +philanthropy, nor as an overseer of the poor, with charity, but by a +necessity of his nature, as he loves dogs and horses; and standing at his +open door from morning till night, would fain see more and more of them +come along the highway, and is never satiated. To him the sun and moon are +but travellers, the one by day and the other by night; and they too +patronize his house. To his imagination all things travel save his +sign-post and himself; and though you may be his neighbor for years, he +will show you only the civilities of the road. But on the other hand, +while nations and individuals are alike selfish and exclusive, he loves +all men equally; and if he treats his nearest neighbor as a stranger, +since he has invited all nations to share his hospitality, the farthest +travelled is in some measure kindred to him who takes him into the bosom +of his family. + +He keeps a house of entertainment at the sign of the Black Horse or the +Spread Eagle, and is known far and wide, and his fame travels with +increasing radius every year. All the neighborhood is in his interest, and +if the traveller ask how far to a tavern, he receives some such answer as +this: "Well, sir, there's a house about three miles from here, where they +haven't taken down their sign yet; but it's only ten miles to Slocum's, +and that's a capital house, both for man and beast." At three miles he +passes a cheerless barrack, standing desolate behind its sign-post, +neither public nor private, and has glimpses of a discontented couple +who have mistaken their calling. At ten miles see where the Tavern +stands,--really an _entertaining_ prospect,--so public and inviting that +only the rain and snow do not enter. It is no gay pavilion, made of bright +stuffs, and furnished with nuts and gingerbread, but as plain and sincere +as a caravansary; located in no Tarrytown, where you receive only the +civilities of commerce, but far in the fields it exercises a primitive +hospitality, amid the fresh scent of new hay and raspberries, if it be +summer time, and the tinkling of cow-bells from invisible pastures; for it +is a land flowing with milk and honey, and the newest milk courses in a +broad, deep stream across the premises. + +In these retired places the tavern is first of all a house--elsewhere, +last of all, or never,--and warms and shelters its inhabitants. It is as +simple and sincere in its essentials as the caves in which the first men +dwelt, but it is also as open and public. The traveller steps across the +threshold, and lo! he too is master, for he only can be called proprietor +of the house here who behaves with most propriety in it. The Landlord +stands clear back in nature, to my imagination, with his axe and spade +felling trees and raising potatoes with the vigor of a pioneer; with +Promethean energy making nature yield her increase to supply the wants of +so many; and he is not so exhausted, nor of so short a stride, but that he +comes forward even to the highway to this wide hospitality and publicity. +Surely, he has solved some of the problems of life. He comes in at his +backdoor, holding a log fresh cut for the hearth upon his shoulder with +one hand, while he greets the newly arrived traveller with the other. + +Here at length we have free range, as not in palaces, nor cottages, nor +temples, and intrude nowhere. All the secrets of housekeeping are +exhibited to the eyes of men, above and below, before and behind. This is +the necessary way to live, men have confessed, in these days, and shall he +skulk and hide? And why should we have any serious disgust at kitchens? +Perhaps they are the holiest recess of the house. There is the hearth, +after all,--and the settle, and the fagots, and the kettle, and the +crickets. We have pleasant reminiscences of these. They are the heart, the +left ventricle, the very vital part of the house. Here the real and +sincere life which we meet in the streets was actually fed and sheltered. +Here burns the taper that cheers the lonely traveller by night, and from +this hearth ascend the smokes that populate the valley to his eyes by day. +On the whole, a man may not be so little ashamed of any other part of his +house, for here is his sincerity and earnest, at least. It may not be here +that the besoms are plied most,--it is not here that they need to be, for +dust will not settle on the kitchen floor more than in nature. + +Hence it will not do for the Landlord to possess too fine a nature. He +must have health above the common accidents of life, subject to no modern +fashionable diseases; but no taste, rather a vast relish or appetite. +His sentiments on all subjects will be delivered as freely as the wind +blows; there is nothing private or individual in them, though still +original, but they are public, and of the hue of the heavens over his +house,--a certain out-of-door obviousness and transparency not to be +disputed. What he does, his manners are not to be complained of, though +abstractly offensive, for it is what man does, and in him the race is +exhibited. When he eats, he is liver and bowels, and the whole digestive +apparatus to the company, and so all admit the thing is done. He must have +no idiosyncrasies, no particular bents or tendencies to this or that, but +a general, uniform, and healthy development, such as his portly person +indicates, offering himself equally on all sides to men. He is not one of +your peaked and inhospitable men of genius, with particular tastes, but, +as we said before, has one uniform relish, and taste which never aspires +higher than a tavern-sign, or the cut of a weather-cock. The man of +genius, like a dog with a bone, or the slave who has swallowed a diamond, +or a patient with the gravel, sits afar and retired, off the road, hangs +out no sign of refreshment for man and beast, but says, by all possible +hints and signs, I wish to be alone--good-by--farewell. But the landlord +can afford to live without privacy. He entertains no private thought, he +cherishes no solitary hour, no Sabbath day, but thinks,--enough to assert +the dignity of reason,--and talks, and reads the newspaper. What he does +not tell to one traveller, he tells to another. He never wants to be +alone, but sleeps, wakes, eats, drinks, sociably, still remembering his +race. He walks abroad through the thoughts of men, and the Iliad and +Shakspeare are tame to him, who hears the rude but homely incidents of +the road from every traveller. The mail might drive through his brain in +the midst of his most lonely soliloquy, without disturbing his equanimity, +provided it brought plenty of news and passengers. There can be no +_pro_-fanity where there is no fane behind, and the whole world may see +quite round him. Perchance his lines have fallen to him in dustier places, +and he has heroically sat down where two roads meet, or at the Four +Corners, or the Five Points, and his life is sublimely trivial for the +good of men. The dust of travel blows ever in his eyes, and they preserve +their clear, complacent look. The hourlies and half-hourlies, the dailies +and weeklies, whirl on well-worn tracks, round and round his house, as if +it were the goal in the stadium, and still he sits within in unruffled +serenity, with no show of retreat. His neighbor dwells timidly behind a +screen of poplars and willows, and a fence with sheaves of spears at +regular intervals, or defended against the tender palms of visitors by +sharp spikes,--but the traveller's wheels rattle over the door-step of the +tavern, and he cracks his whip in the entry. He is truly glad to see you, +and sincere as the bull's-eye over his door. The traveller seeks to find, +wherever he goes, some one who will stand in this broad and catholic +relation to him, who will be an inhabitant of the land to him a stranger, +and represent its human nature, as the rock stands for its inanimate +nature; and this is he. As his crib furnishes provender for the +traveller's horse, and his larder provisions for his appetite, so his +conversation furnishes the necessary aliment to his spirits. He knows very +well what a man wants, for he is a man himself, and as it were the +farthest travelled, though he has never stirred from his door. He +understands his needs and destiny. He would be well fed and lodged, there +can be no doubt, and have the transient sympathy of a cheerful companion, +and of a heart which always prophesies fair weather. And after all the +greatest men, even, want much more the sympathy which every honest fellow +can give, than that which the great only can impart. If he is not the most +upright, let us allow him this praise, that he is the most downright of +men. He has a hand to shake and to be shaken, and takes a sturdy and +unquestionable interest in you, as if he had assumed the care of you, but +if you will break your neck, he will even give you the best advice as to +the method. + +The great poets have not been ungrateful to their landlords. Mine host of +the Tabard Inn, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, was an honor to +his profession:-- + +"A semely man our Hoste was, with alle, +For to han been an marshal in an halle. +A large man he was, with eyen stepe; +A fairer burgeis is ther nou in Chepe: +Bold of his speche, and wise, and well ytaught, +And of manhood him lacked righte naught. +Eke thereto, was he right a mery man, +And after souper plaien he began, +And spake of mirthe amonges other thinges, +Whan that we hadden made our reckoninges." + +He is the true house-band, and centre of the company--of greater +fellowship and practical social talent than any. He it is that proposes +that each shall tell a tale to while away the time to Canterbury, and +leads them himself, and concludes with his own tale:-- + +"Now, by my fader's soule that is ded, +But ye be mery, smiteth of my hed: +Hold up your hondes withouten more speche." + +If we do not look up to the Landlord, we look round for him on all +emergencies, for he is a man of infinite experience, who unites hands with +wit. He is a more public character than a statesman,--a publican, and not +consequently a sinner; and surely, he, if any, should be exempted from +taxation and military duty. + +Talking with our host is next best and instructive to talking with one's +self. It is a more conscious soliloquy; as it were, to speak generally, +and try what we would say provided we had an audience. He has indulgent +and open ears, and does not require petty and particular statements. +"Heigho!" exclaims the traveller. Them's my sentiments, thinks mine host, +and stands ready for what may come next, expressing the purest sympathy by +his demeanor. "Hot as blazes!" says the other,--"Hard weather, sir,--not +much stirring nowadays," says he. He is wiser than to contradict his guest +in any case; he lets him go on, he lets him travel. + +The latest sitter leaves him standing far in the night, prepared to live +right on, while suns rise and set, and his "good night" has as brisk a +sound as his "good morning;" and the earliest riser finds him tasting his +liquors in the bar ere flies begin to buzz, with a countenance fresh as +the morning star over the sanded floor,--and not as one who had watched +all night for travellers. And yet, if beds be the subject of conversation, +it will appear that no man has been a sounder sleeper in his time. + +Finally, as for his moral character, we do not hesitate to say, that he +has no grain of vice or meanness in him, but represents just that degree +of virtue which all men relish without being obliged to respect. He is a +good man, as his bitters are good,--an unquestionable goodness. Not what +is called a good man,--good to be considered, as a work of art in +galleries and museums,--but a good fellow, that is, good to be associated +with. Who ever thought of the religion of an innkeeper--whether he was +joined to the Church, partook of the sacrament, said his prayers, feared +God, or the like? No doubt he has had his experiences, has felt a change, +and is a firm believer in the perseverance of the saints. In this last, we +suspect, does the peculiarity of his religion consist. But he keeps an +inn, and not a conscience. How many fragrant charities and sincere social +virtues are implied in this, daily offering of himself to the public. He +cherishes good will to all, and gives the wayfarer as good and honest +advice to direct him on his road as the priest. + +To conclude, the tavern will compare favorably with the church. The church +is the place where prayers and sermons are delivered, but the tavern is +where they are to take effect, and if the former are good, the latter +cannot be bad. + + + +A WINTER WALK. + +[1843.] + + +The wind has gently murmured through the blinds, or puffed with feathery +softness against the windows, and occasionally sighed like a summer zephyr +lifting the leaves along, the livelong night. The meadow-mouse has slept +in his snug gallery in the sod, the owl has sat in a hollow tree in the +depth of the swamp, the rabbit, the squirrel, and the fox have all been +housed. The watch-dog has lain quiet on the hearth, and the cattle have +stood silent in their stalls. The earth itself has slept, as it were its +first, not its last sleep, save when some street-sign or wood-house door +has faintly creaked upon its hinge, cheering forlorn nature at her +midnight work,--the only sound awake twixt Venus and Mars,--advertising us +of a remote inward warmth, a divine cheer and fellowship, where gods are +met together, but where it is very bleak for men to stand. But while the +earth has slumbered, all the air has been alive with feathery flakes +descending, as if some northern Ceres reigned, showering her silvery grain +over all the fields. + +We sleep, and at length awake to the still reality of a winter morning. +The snow lies warm as cotton or down upon the window-sill; the broadened +sash and frosted panes admit a dim and private light, which enhances the +snug cheer within. The stillness of the morning is impressive. The floor +creaks under our feet as we move toward the window to look abroad through +some clear space over the fields. We see the roofs stand under their snow +burden. From the eaves and fences hang stalactites of snow, and in the +yard stand stalagmites covering some concealed core. The trees and shrubs +rear white arms to the sky on every side; and where were walls and fences, +we see fantastic forms stretching in frolic gambols across the dusky +landscape, as if nature had strewn her fresh designs over the fields by +night as models for man's art. + +Silently we unlatch the door, letting the drift fall in, and step abroad +to face the cutting air. Already the stars have lost some of their +sparkle, and a dull, leaden mist skirts the horizon. A lurid brazen light +in the east proclaims the approach of day, while the western landscape is +dim and spectral still, and clothed in a sombre Tartarian light, like the +shadowy realms. They are Infernal sounds only that you hear,--the crowing +of cocks, the barking of dogs, the chopping of wood, the lowing of kine, +all seem to come from Pluto's barn-yard and beyond the Styx;--not for any +melancholy they suggest, but their twilight bustle is too solemn and +mysterious for earth. The recent tracks of the fox or otter, in the yard, +remind us that each hour of the night is crowded with events, and the +primeval nature is still working and making tracks in the snow. Opening +the gate, we tread briskly along the lone country road, crunching the dry +and crisped snow under our feet, or aroused by the sharp clear creak of +the wood-sled, just starting for the distant market, from the early +farmer's door, where it has lain the summer long, dreaming amid the chips +and stubble; while far through the drifts and powdered windows we see the +farmer's early candle, like a paled star, emitting a lonely beam, as if +some severe virtue were at its matins there. And one by one the smokes +begin to ascend from the chimneys amidst the trees and snows. + +The sluggish smoke curls up from some deep dell, +The stiffened air exploring in the dawn, +And making slow acquaintance with the day; +Delaying now upon its heavenward course, +In wreathed loiterings dallying with itself, +With as uncertain purpose and slow deed, +As its half-wakened master by the hearth, +Whose mind still slumbering and sluggish thoughts +Have not yet swept into the onward current +Of the new day;--and now it streams afar, +The while the chopper goes with step direct, +And mind intent to swing the early axe. + +First in the dusky dawn he sends abroad +His early scout, his emissary, smoke, +The earliest, latest pilgrim from the roof, +To feel the frosty air, inform the day; +And while he crouches still beside the hearth, +Nor musters courage to unbar the door, +It has gone down the glen with the light wind, +And o'er the plain unfurled its venturous wreath, +Draped the tree-tops, loitered upon the hill, +And warmed the pinions of the early bird; +And now, perchance, high in the crispy air, +Has caught sight of the day o'er the earth's edge, +And greets its master's eye at his low door, +As some refulgent cloud in the upper sky. + +We hear the sound of wood-chopping at the farmers' doors, far over the +frozen earth, the baying of the house-dog, and the distant clarion of the +cock. Though the thin and frosty air conveys only the finer particles of +sound to our ears, with short and sweet vibrations, as the waves subside +soonest on the purest and lightest liquids, in which gross substances sink +to the bottom. They come clear and bell-like, and from a greater distance +in the horizon, as if there were fewer impediments than in summer to make +them faint and ragged. The ground is sonorous, like seasoned wood, and +even the ordinary rural sounds are melodious, and the jingling of the ice +on the trees is sweet and liquid. There is the least possible moisture in +the atmosphere, all being dried up, or congealed, and it is of such +extreme tenuity and elasticity, that it becomes a source of delight. +The withdrawn and tense sky seems groined like the aisles of a cathedral, +and the polished air sparkles as if there were crystals of ice floating in +it. As they who have resided in Greenland tell us, that, when it freezes, +"the sea smokes like burning turf-land, and a fog or mist arises, called +frost-smoke," which "cutting smoke frequently raises blisters on the face +and hands, and is very pernicious to the health." But this pure stinging +cold is an elixir to the lungs, and not so much a frozen mist, as a +crystallized midsummer haze, refined and purified by cold. + +The sun at length rises through the distant woods, as if with the faint +clashing swinging sound of cymbals, melting the air with his beams, and +with such rapid steps the morning travels, that already his rays are +gilding the distant western mountains. Meanwhile we step hastily along +through the powdery snow, warmed by an inward heat, enjoying an Indian +summer still, in the increased glow of thought and feeling. Probably if +our lives were more conformed to nature, we should not need to defend +ourselves against her heats and colds, but find her our constant nurse and +friend, as do plants and quadrupeds. If our bodies were fed with pure and +simple elements, and not with a stimulating and heating diet, they would +afford no more pasture for cold than a leafless twig, but thrive like the +trees, which find even winter genial to their expansion. + +The wonderful purity of nature at this season is a most pleasing fact. +Every decayed stump and moss-grown stone and rail, and the dead leaves of +autumn, are concealed by a clean napkin of snow. In the bare fields and +tinkling woods, see what virtue survives. In the coldest and bleakest +places, the warmest charities still maintain a foothold. A cold and +searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but +what has a virtue in it; and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold +and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of +sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called +in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of +the universe, and of such valor as God himself. It is invigorating to +breathe the cleansed air. Its greater fineness and purity are visible to +the eye, and we would fain stay out long and late, that the-gales may sigh +through us, too, as through the leafless trees, and fit us for the +winter:--as if we hoped so to borrow some pure and steadfast virtue, which +will stead us in all seasons. + +There is a slumbering subterranean fire in nature which never goes out, +and which no cold can chill. It finally melts the great snow, and in +January or July is only buried under a thicker or thinner covering. In the +coldest day it flows somewhere, and the snow melts around every tree. This +field of winter rye, which sprouted late in the fall, and now speedily +dissolves the snow, is where the fire is very thinly covered. We feel +warmed by it. In the winter, warmth stands for all virtue, and we resort +in thought to a trickling rill, with its bare stones shining in the sun, +and to warm springs in the woods, with as much eagerness as rabbits and +robins. The steam which rises from swamps and pools, is as dear and +domestic as that of our own kettle. What fire could ever equal the +sunshine of a winter's day, when the meadow mice come out by the +wallsides, and the chicadee lisps in the defiles of the wood? The warmth +comes directly from the sun, and is not radiated from the earth, as in +summer; and when we feel his beams on our backs as we are treading some +snowy dell, we are grateful as for a special kindness, and bless the sun +which has followed us into that by-place. + +This subterranean fire has its altar in each man's breast, for in the +coldest day, and on the bleakest hill, the traveller cherishes a warmer +fire within the folds of his cloak than is kindled on any hearth. A +healthy man, indeed, is the complement of the seasons, and in winter, +summer is in his heart. There is the south. Thither have all birds and +insects migrated, and around the warm springs in his breast are gathered +the robin and the lark. + +At length, having reached the edge of the woods, and shut out the gadding +town, we enter within their covert as we go under the roof of a cottage, +and cross its threshold, all ceiled and banked up with snow. They are glad +and warm still, and as genial and cheery in winter as in summer. As we +stand in the midst of the pines, in the nickering and checkered light +which straggles but little way into their maze, we wonder if the towns +have ever heard their simple story. It seems to us that no traveller has +ever explored them, and notwithstanding the wonders which science is +elsewhere revealing every day, who would not like to hear their annals? +Our humble villages in the plain are their contribution. We borrow from +the forest the boards which shelter, and the sticks which warm us. How +important is their evergreen to the winter, that portion of the summer +which does not fade, the permanent year, the unwithered grass. Thus +simply, and with little expense of altitude, is the surface of the earth +diversified. What would human life be without forests, those natural +cities? From the tops of mountains they appear like smooth shaven lawns, +yet whither shall we walk but in this taller grass? + +In this glade covered with bushes of a year's growth, see how the silvery +dust lies on every seared leaf and twig, deposited in such infinite and +luxurious forms as by their very variety atone for the absence of color. +Observe the tiny tracks of mice around every stem, and the triangular +tracks of the rabbit. A pure elastic heaven hangs over all, as if the +impurities of the summer sky, refined and shrunk by the chaste winter's +cold, had been winnowed from the heavens upon the earth. + +Nature confounds her summer distinctions at this season. The heavens seem +to be nearer the earth. The elements are less reserved and distinct. Water +turns to ice, rain to snow. The day is but a Scandinavian night. The +winter is an arctic summer. + +How much more living is the life that is in nature, the furred life which +still survives the stinging nights, and, from amidst fields and woods +covered with frost and snow, sees the sun rise. + + "The foodless wilds + Pour forth their brown inhabitants.". + +The gray squirrel and rabbit are brisk and playful in the remote glens, +even on the morning of the cold Friday. Here is our Lapland and Labrador, +and for our Esquimaux and Knistenaux, Dog-ribbed Indians, Novazemblaites, +and Spitzbergeners, are there not the ice-cutter and wood-chopper, the +fox, musk-rat, and mink? + +Still, in the midst of the arctic day, we may trace the summer to its +retreats, and sympathize with some contemporary life. Stretched over the +brooks, in the midst of the frost-bound meadows, we may observe the +submarine cottages of the caddice-worms, the larvae of the Plicipennes. +Their small cylindrical cases built around themselves, composed of flags, +sticks, grass, and withered leaves, shells, and pebbles, in form and color +like the wrecks which strew the bottom,--now drifting along over the +pebbly bottom, now whirling in tiny eddies and dashing down steep falls, +or sweeping rapidly along with the current, or else swaying to and fro at +the end of some grass-blade or root. Anon they will leave their sunken +habitations, and, crawling up the stems of plants, or to the surface, like +gnats, as perfect insects henceforth, flutter over the surface of the +water, or sacrifice their short lives in the flame of our candles at +evening. Down yonder little glen the shrubs are drooping under their +burden, and the red alder-berries contrast with the white ground. Here are +the marks of a myriad feet which have already been abroad. The sun rises +as proudly over such a glen, as over the valley of the Seine or the Tiber, +and it seems the residence of a pure and self-subsistent valor, such as +they never witnessed; which never knew defeat nor fear. Here reign the +simplicity and purity of a primitive age, and a health and hope far remote +from towns and cities. Standing quite alone, far in the forest, while the +wind is shaking down snow from the trees, and leaving the only human +tracks behind us, we find our reflections of a richer variety than the +life of cities. The chicadee and nuthatch are more inspiring society than +statesmen and philosophers, and we shall return to these last, as to more +vulgar companions. In this lonely glen, with its brook draining the +slopes, its creased ice and crystals of all hues, where the spruces and +hemlocks stand up on either side, and the rush and sere wild oats in the +rivulet itself, our lives are more serene and worthy to contemplate. + +As the day advances, the heat of the sun is reflected by the hill-sides, +and we hear a faint but sweet music, where flows the rill released from +its fetters, and the icicles are melting on the trees; and the nuthatch +and partridge are heard and seen. The south wind melts the snow at noon, +and the bare ground appears with its withered grass and leaves, and we are +invigorated by the perfume which exhales from it, as by the scent of +strong meats. + +Let us go into this deserted woodman's hut, and see how he has passed the +long winter nights and the short and stormy days. For here man has lived +under this south hill-side, and it seems a civilized and public spot. We +have such associations as when the traveller stands by the ruins of +Palmyra or Hecatompolis. Singing birds and flowers perchance have begun to +appear here, for flowers as well as weeds follow in the footsteps of man. +These hemlocks whispered over his head, these hickory logs were his fuel, +and these pitch-pine roots kindled his fire; yonder fuming rill in the +hollow, whose thin and airy vapor still ascends as busily as ever, though +he is far off now, was his well. These hemlock boughs, and the straw upon +this raised platform, were his bed, and this broken dish held his drink. +But he has not been here this season, for the phoebes built their nest +upon this shelf last summer. I find some embers left, as if he had but +just gone out, where he baked his pot of beans; and while at evening he +smoked his pipe, whose stemless bowl lies in the ashes, chatted with his +only companion, if perchance he had any, about the depth of the snow on +the morrow, already falling fast and thick without, or disputed whether +the last sound was the screech of an owl, or the creak of a bough, or +imagination only; and through this broad chimney throat, in the late +winter evening, ere he stretched himself upon the straw, he looked up to +learn the progress of the storm, and, seeing the bright stars of +Cassiopeia's chair shining brightly down upon him, fell contentedly +asleep. See how many traces from which we may learn the chopper's history. +From this stump we may guess the sharpness of his axe, and, from the slope +of the stroke, on which side he stood, and whether he cut down the tree +without going round it or changing hands; and, from the flexure of the +splinters, we may know which way it fell. This one chip contains inscribed +on it the whole history of the wood-chopper and of the world. On this +scrap of paper, which held his sugar or salt, perchance, or was the +wadding of his gun, sitting on a log in the forest, with what interest we +read the tattle of cities, of those larger huts, empty and to let, like +this, in High Streets and Broadways. The eaves are dripping on the south +side of this simple roof, while the titmouse lisps in the pine, and the +genial warmth of the sun around the door is somewhat kind and human. + +After two seasons, this rude dwelling does not deform the scene. Already +the birds resort to it, to build their nests, and you may track to its +door the feet of many quadrupeds. Thus, for a long time, nature overlooks +the encroachment and profanity of-man. The wood still cheerfully and +unsuspiciously echoes the strokes of the axe that fells it, and while they +are few and seldom, they enhance its wildness, and all the elements strive +to naturalize the sound. + +Now our path begins to ascend gradually to the top of this high hill, +from whose precipitous south side we can look over the broad country, of +forest and field and river, to the distant snowy mountains. See yonder +thin column of smoke curling up through the woods from some invisible +farm-house; the standard raised over some rural homestead. There must be +a warmer and more genial spot there below, as where we detect the vapor +from a spring forming a cloud above the trees. What fine relations are +established between the traveller who discovers this airy column from some +eminence in the forest, and him who sits below. Up goes the smoke as +silently and naturally as the vapor exhales from the leaves, and as busy +disposing itself in wreathes as the housewife on the hearth below. It is a +hieroglyphic of man's life, and suggests more intimate and important +things than the boiling of a pot. Where its fine column rises above the +forest, like an ensign, some human life has planted itself,--and such is +the beginning of Rome, the establishment of the arts, and the foundation +of empires, whether on the prairies of America, or the steppes of Asia. + +And now we descend again to the brink of this woodland lake, which lies in +a hollow of the hills, as if it were their expressed juice, and that of +the leaves, which are annually steeped in it. Without outlet or inlet to +the eye, it has still its history, in the lapse of its waves, in the +rounded pebbles on its shore, and in the pines which grow down to its +brink. It has not been idle, though sedentary, but, like Abu Musa, teaches +that "sitting still at home is the heavenly way; the going out is the way +of the world." Yet in its evaporation it travels as far as any. In summer +it is the earth's liquid eye; a mirror in the breast of nature. The sins +of the wood are washed out in it. See how the woods form an amphitheatre +about it, and it is an arena for all the genialness of nature. All trees +direct the traveller to its brink, all paths seek it out, birds fly to it, +quadrupeds flee to it, and the very ground inclines toward it. It is +nature's saloon, where she has sat down to her toilet. Consider her silent +economy and tidiness; how the sun comes with his evaporation to sweep the +dust from its surface each morning, and a fresh surface is constantly +welling up; and annually, after whatever impurities have accumulated +herein, its liquid transparency appears again in the spring. In summer a +hushed music seems to sweep across its surface. But now a plain sheet of +snow conceals it from our eyes, except where the wind has swept the ice +bare, and the sere leaves are gliding from side to side, tacking and +veering on their tiny voyages. Here is one just keeled up against a pebble +on shove, a dry beech-leaf, rocking still, as if it would start again. A +skilful engineer, methinks, might project its course since it fell from +the parent stem. Here are all the elements for such a calculation. Its +present position, the direction of the wind, the level of the pond, and +how much more is given. In its scarred edges and veins is its log rolled +up. + +We fancy ourselves in the interior of a larger house. The surface of the +pond is our deal table or sanded floor, and the woods rise abruptly from +its edge, like the walls of a cottage. The lines set to catch pickerel +through the ice look like a larger culinary preparation, and the men stand +about on the white ground like pieces of forest furniture. The actions of +these men, at the distance of half a mile over the ice and snow, impress +us as when we read the exploits of Alexander in history. They seem not +unworthy of the scenery, and as momentous as the conquest of kingdoms. + +Again we have wandered through the arches of the wood, until from its +skirts we hear the distant booming of ice from yonder bay of the river, as +if it were moved by some other and subtler tide than oceans know. To me it +has a strange sound of home, thrilling as the voice of one's distant and +noble kindred. A mild summer sun shines over forest and lake, and though +there is but one green leaf for many rods, yet nature enjoys a serene +health. Every sound is fraught with the same mysterious assurance of +health, as well now the creaking of the boughs in January, as the soft +sough of the wind in July. + +When Winter fringes every bough + With his fantastic wreath, +And puts the seal of silence now + Upon the leaves beneath; + +When every stream in its pent-house + Goes gurgling on its way, +And in his gallery the mouse + Nibbleth the meadow hay; + +Methinks the summer still is nigh, + And lurketh underneath, +As that same meadow-mouse doth lie + Snug in that last year's heath. + +And if perchance the chicadee + Lisp a faint note anon, +The snow is summer's canopy, + Which she herself put on. + +Fair blossoms deck the cheerful trees, + And dazzling fruits depend, +The north wind sighs a summer breeze, + The nipping frosts to fend, + +Bringing glad tidings unto me, + The while I stand all ear, +Of a serene eternity, + Which need not winter fear. + +Out on the silent pond straightway + The restless ice doth crack, +And pond sprites merry gambols play + Amid the deafening rack. + +Eager I hasten to the vale, + As if I heard brave news, +How nature held high festival, + Which it were hard to lose. + +I gambol with my neighbor ice, + And sympathizing quake, +As each new crack darts in a trice + Across the gladsome lake. + +One with the cricket in the ground, + And fagot on the hearth, +Resounds the rare domestic sound + Along the forest path. + +Before night we will take a journey on skates along the course of this +meandering river, as full of novelty to one who sits by the cottage fire +all the winter's day, as if it were over the polar ice, with Captain Parry +or Franklin; following the winding of the stream, now flowing amid hills, +now spreading out into fair meadows, and forming a myriad coves and bays +where the pine and hemlock overarch. The river flows in the rear of the +towns, and we see all things from a new and wilder side. The fields and +gardens come down to it with a frankness, and freedom from pretension, +which they do not wear on the highway. It is the outside and edge of the +earth. Our eyes are not offended by violent contrasts. The last rail of +the farmer's fence is some swaying willow bough, which still preserves its +freshness, and here at length all fences stop, and we no longer cross any +road. We may go far up within the country now by the most retired and +level road, never climbing a hill, but by broad levels ascending to the +upland meadows. It is a beautiful illustration of the law of obedience, +the flow of a river; the path for a sick man, a highway down which an +acorn cup may float secure with its freight. Its slight occasional falls, +whose precipices would not diversify the landscape, are celebrated by mist +and spray, and attract the traveller from far and near. From the remote +interior, its current conducts him by broad and easy steps, or by one +gentle inclined plane, to the sea. Thus by an early and constant yielding +to the inequalities of the ground, it secures itself the easiest passage. + +No domain of nature is quite closed to man at all times, and now we draw +near to the empire of the fishes. Our feet glide swiftly over unfathomed +depths, where in summer our line tempted the pout and perch, and where the +stately pickerel lurked in the long corridors formed by the bulrushes. The +deep, impenetrable marsh, where the heron waded, and bittern squatted, is +made pervious to our swift shoes, as if a thousand railroads had been made +into it. With one impulse we are carried to the cabin of the musk-rat, +that earliest settler, and see him dart away under the transparent ice, +like a furred fish, to his hole in the bank; and we glide rapidly over +meadows where lately "the mower whet his scythe," through beds of frozen +cranberries mixed with meadow grass. We skate near to where the blackbird, +the pewee, and the kingbird hung their nests over the water, and the +hornets builded from the maple in the swamp. How many gay warblers +following the sun, have radiated from this nest of silver-birch and +thistledown. On the swamp's outer edge was hung the supermarine village, +where no foot penetrated. In this hollow tree the wood-duck reared her +brood, and slid away each day to forage in yonder fen. + +In winter, nature is a cabinet of curiosities, full of dried specimens, in +their natural order and position. The meadows and forests are a _hortus +siccus_. The leaves and grasses stand perfectly pressed by the air without +screw or gum, and the birds' nests are not hung on an artificial twig, but +where they builded them. We go about dryshod to inspect the summer's work +in the rank swamp, and see what a growth have got the alders, the willows, +and the maples; testifying to how many warm suns, and fertilizing dews and +showers. See what strides their boughs took in the luxuriant summer,--and +anon these dormant buds will carry them onward and upward another span +into the heavens. + +Occasionally we wade through fields of snow, under whose depths the river +is lost for many rods, to appear again to the right or left, where we +least expected; still holding on its way underneath, with a faint, +stertorous, rumbling sound, as if, like the bear and marmot, it too had +hibernated, and we had followed its faint summer-trail to where it earthed +itself in snow and ice. At first we should have thought that rivers would +be empty and dry in midwinter, or else frozen solid till the spring thawed +them; but their volume is not diminished even, for only a superficial cold +bridges their surface. The thousand springs which feed the lakes and +streams are flowing still. The issues of a few surface springs only are +closed, and they go to swell the deep reservoirs. Nature's wells are below +the frost. The summer brooks are not filled with snow-water, nor does the +mower quench his thirst with that alone. The streams are swollen when the +snow melts in the spring, because nature's work has been delayed, the +water being turned into ice and snow, whose particles are less smooth and +round, and do not find their level so soon. + +Far over the ice, between the hemlock woods and snow-clad hills, stands +the pickerel fisher, his lines set in some retired cove, like a Finlander, +with his arms thrust into the pouches of his dreadnought; with dull, +snowy, fishy thoughts, himself a finless fish, separated a few inches from +his race; dumb, erect, and made to be enveloped in clouds and snows, like +the pines on shore. In these wild scenes, men stand about in the scenery, +or move deliberately and heavily, having sacrificed the sprightliness and +vivacity of towns to the dumb sobriety of nature. He does not make the +scenery less wild, more than the jays and musk-rats, but stands there as a +part of it, as the natives are represented in the voyages of early +navigators, at Nootka Sound, and on the Northwest coast, with their furs +about them, before they were tempted to loquacity by a scrap of iron. He +belongs to the natural family of man, and is planted deeper in nature and +has more root than the inhabitants of towns. Go to him, ask what luck, and +you will learn that he too is a worshipper of the unseen. Hear with what +sincere deference and waving gesture in his tone, he speaks of the lake +pickerel, which he has never seen, his primitive and ideal race of +pickerel. He is connected with the shore still, as by a fish-line, and yet +remembers the season when he took fish through the ice on the pond, while +the peas were up in his garden at home. + +But now, while we have loitered, the clouds have gathered again, and a few +straggling snow-flakes are beginning to descend. Faster and faster they +fall, shutting out the distant objects from sight. The snow falls on every +wood and field, and no crevice is forgotten; by the river and the pond, on +the hill and in the valley. Quadrupeds are confined to their coverts, and +the birds sit upon their perches this peaceful hour. There is not so much +sound as in fair weather, but silently and gradually every slope, and the +gray walls and fences, and the polished ice, and the sere leaves, which +were not buried before, are concealed, and the tracks of men and beasts +are lost. With so little effort does nature reassert her rule and blot out +the traces of men. Hear how Homer has described the same. "The snow-flakes +fall thick and fast on a winter's day. The winds are lulled, and the snow +falls incessant, covering the tops of the mountains, and the hills, and +the plains where the lotus-tree grows, and the cultivated fields, and they +are falling by the inlets and shores of the foaming sea, but are silently +dissolved by the waves." The snow levels all things, and infolds them +deeper in the bosom of nature, as, in the slow summer, vegetation creeps +up to the entablature of the temple, and the turrets of the castle, and +helps her to prevail over art. + +The surly night-wind rustles through the wood, and warns us to retrace our +steps, while the sun goes down behind the thickening storm, and birds seek +their roosts, and cattle their stalls. + + "Drooping the lab'rer ox + Stands covered o'er with snow, and _now_ demands + The fruit of all his toil." + +Though winter is represented in the almanac as an old man, facing the wind +and sleet, and drawing his cloak about him, we rather think of him as a +merry wood-chopper, and warm-blooded youth, as blithe as summer. The +unexplored grandeur of the storm keeps up the spirits of the traveller. It +does not trifle with us, but has a sweet earnestness. In winter we lead a +more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under +drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose +chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends. The imprisoning drifts increase the +sense of comfort which the house affords, and in the coldest days we are +content to sit over the hearth and see the sky through the chimney top, +enjoying the quiet and serene life that may be had in a warm corner by the +chimney side, or feeling our pulse by listening to the low of cattle in +the street, or the sound of the flail in distant barns all the long +afternoon. No doubt a skilful physician could determine our health by +observing how these simple and natural sounds affected us. We enjoy now, +not an oriental, but a boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fireplaces, +and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams. + +Sometimes our fate grows too homely and familiarly serious ever to be +cruel. Consider how for three months the human destiny is wrapped in furs. +The good Hebrew Revelation takes no cognizance of all this cheerful snow. +Is there no religion for the temperate and frigid zones? We know of no +scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New England +winter night. Their praises have never been sung, only their wrath +deprecated. The best scripture, after all, records but a meagre faith. Its +saints live reserved and austere. Let a brave devout man spend the year in +the woods of Maine or Labrador, and see if the Hebrew Scriptures speak +adequately to his condition and experience, from the setting in of winter +to the breaking up of the ice. + +Now commences the long winter evening around the farmer's hearth, when the +thoughts of the indwellers travel far abroad, and men are by nature and +necessity charitable and liberal to all creatures. Now is the happy +resistance to cold, when the farmer reaps his reward, and thinks of his +preparedness for winter, and, through the glittering panes, sees with +equanimity "the mansion of the northern bear," for now the storm is over, + + "The full ethereal round, +Infinite worlds disclosing to the view, +Shines out intensely keen; and all one cope +Of starry glitter glows from pole to pole." + + + +THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES. +[An Address read to the Middlesex Agricultural Society, in Concord, +September, 1860.] + +Every man is entitled to come to Cattle-show, even a transcendentalist; +and for my part I am more interested in the men than in the cattle. I wish +to see once more those old familiar faces, whose names I do not know, +which for me represent the Middlesex country, and come as near being +indigenous to the soil as a white man can; the men who are not above their +business, whose coats are not too black, whose shoes do not shine very +much, who never wear gloves to conceal their hands. It is true, there are +some queer specimens of humanity attracted to our festival, but all are +welcome. I am pretty sure to meet once more that weak-minded and whimsical +fellow, generally weak-bodied too, who prefers a crooked stick for a cane; +perfectly useless, you would say, only _bizarre_, fit for a cabinet, like +a petrified snake. A ram's horn would be as convenient, and is yet more +curiously twisted. He brings that much indulged bit of the country with +him, from some town's end or other, and introduces it to Concord groves, +as if he had promised it so much sometime. So some, it seems to me, elect +their rulers for their crookedness. But I think that a straight stick +makes the best cane, and an upright man the best ruler. Or why choose a +man to do plain work who is distinguished for his oddity? However, I do +not know but you will think that they have committed this mistake who +invited me to speak to you to-day. + +In my capacity of surveyor, I have often talked with some of you, my +employers, at your dinner-tables, after having gone round and round and +behind your farming, and ascertained exactly what its limits were. +Moreover, taking a surveyor's and a naturalist's liberty, I have been in +the habit of going across your lots much oftener than is usual, as many +of you, perhaps to your sorrow, are aware. Yet many of you, to my relief, +have seemed not to be aware of it; and when I came across you in some +out-of-the-way nook of your farms, have inquired, with an air of surprise, +if I were not lost, since you had never seen me in that part of the town +or county before; when, if the truth were known, and it had not been for +betraying my secret, I might with more propriety have inquired if _you_ +were not lost, since I had never seen _you_ there before. I have several +times shown the proprietor the shortest way out of his wood-lot. + +Therefore, it would seem that I have some title to speak to you to-day; +and considering what that title is, and the occasion that has called us +together, I need offer no apology if I invite your attention, for the few +moments that are allotted me, to a purely scientific subject. + +At those dinner-tables referred to, I have often been asked, as many of +you have been, if I could tell how it happened, that when a pine wood was +cut down an oak one commonly sprang up, and _vice versa_. To which I have +answered, and now answer, that I can tell,--that it is no mystery to me. +As I am not aware that this has been clearly shown by any one, I shall lay +the more stress on this point. Let me lead you back into your wood-lots +again. + +When, hereabouts, a single forest tree or a forest springs up naturally +where none of its kind grew before, I do not hesitate to say, though in +some quarters still it may sound paradoxical, that it came from a seed. Of +the various ways by which trees are _known_ to be propagated,--by +transplanting, cuttings, and the like,--this is the only supposable one +under these circumstances. No such tree has ever been known to spring from +anything else. If any one asserts that it sprang from something else, or +from nothing, the burden of proof lies with him. + +It remains, then, only to show how the seed is transported from where it +grows, to where it is planted. This is done chiefly by the agency of the +wind, water, and animals. The lighter seeds, as those of pines and maples, +are transported chiefly by wind and water; the heavier, as acorns and +nuts, by animals. + +In all the pines, a very thin membrane, in appearance much like an +insect's wing, grows over and around the seed, and independent of it, +while the latter is being developed within its base. Indeed this is often +perfectly developed, though the seed is abortive; nature being, you would +say, more sure to provide the means of transporting the seed, than to +provide the seed to be transported. In other words, a beautiful thin sack +is woven around the seed, with a handle to it such as the wind can take +hold of, and it is then committed to the wind, expressly that it may +transport the seed and extend the range of the species; and this it does, +as effectually, as when seeds are sent by mail in a different kind of sack +from the patent-office. There is a patent-office at the seat of government +of the universe, whose managers are as much interested in the dispersion +of seeds as anybody at Washington can be, and their operations are +infinitely more extensive and regular. + +There is then no necessity for supposing that the pines have sprung up +from nothing, and I am aware that I am not at all peculiar in asserting +that they come from seeds, though the mode of their propagation _by +nature_ has been but little attended to. They are very extensively raised +from the seed in Europe, and are beginning to be here. + +When you cut down an oak wood, a pine wood will not _at once_ spring up +there unless there are, or have been, quite recently, seed-bearing pines +near enough for the seeds to be blown from them. But, adjacent to a forest +of pines, if you prevent other crops from growing there, you will surely +have an extension of your pine forest, provided the soil is suitable. + +As for the heavy seeds and nuts which are not furnished with wings, the +notion is still a very common one that, when the trees which bear these +spring up where none of their kind were noticed before, they have come +from seeds or other principles spontaneously generated there in an unusual +manner, or which have lain dormant in the soil for centuries, or perhaps +been called into activity by the heat of a burning. I do not believe these +assertions, and I will state some of the ways in which, according to my +observation, such forests are planted and raised. + +Every one of these seeds, too, will be found to be winged or legged in +another fashion. Surely it is not wonderful that cherry-trees of all kinds +are widely dispersed, since their fruit is well known to be the favorite +food of various birds. Many kinds are called bird-cherries, and they +appropriate many more kinds, which are not so called. Eating cherries is a +bird-like employment, and unless we disperse the seeds occasionally, as +they do, I shall think that the birds have the best right to them. See how +artfully the seed of a cherry is placed in order that a bird may be +compelled to transport it--in the very midst of a tempting pericarp, so +that the creature that would devour this must commonly take the stone also +into its mouth or bill. If you ever ate a cherry, and did not make two +bites of it, you must have perceived it--right in the centre of the +luscious morsel, a large earthy residuum left on the tongue. We thus take +into our mouths cherry stones as big as peas, a dozen at once, for Nature +can persuade us to do almost anything when she would compass her ends. +Some wild men and children instinctively swallow these, as the birds do +when in a hurry, it being the shortest way to get rid of them. Thus, +though these seeds are not provided with vegetable wings, Nature has +impelled the thrush tribe to take them into their bills and fly away with +them; and they are winged in another sense, and more effectually than the +seeds of pines, for these are carried even against the wind. The +consequence is, that cherry-trees grow not only here but there. The same +is true of a great many other seeds. + +But to come to the observation which suggested these remarks. As I have +said, I suspect that I can throw some light on the fact, that when +hereabouts a dense pine wood is cut down, oaks and other hard woods may at +once take its place. I have got only to show that the acorns and nuts, +provided they are grown in the neighborhood, are regularly planted in such +woods; for I assert that if an oak-tree has not grown within ten miles, +and man has not carried acorns thither, then an oak wood will not spring +up _at once_, when a pine wood is cut down. + +Apparently, there were only pines there before. They are cut off, and +after a year or two you see oaks and other hard woods springing up there, +with scarcely a pine amid them, and the wonder commonly is, how the seed +could have lain in the ground so long without decaying. But the truth is, +that it has not lain in the ground so long, but is regularly planted each +year by various quadrupeds and birds. + +In this neighborhood, where oaks and pines are about equally dispersed, +if you look through the thickest pine wood, even the seemingly unmixed +pitch-pine ones, you will commonly detect many little oaks, birches, and +other hard woods, sprung from seeds carried into the thicket by squirrels +and other animals, and also blown thither, but which are over-shadowed and +choked by the pines. The denser the evergreen wood, the more likely it is +to be well planted with these seeds, because the planters incline to +resort with their forage to the closest covert. They also carry it into +birch and other woods. This planting is carried on annually, and the +oldest seedlings annually die; but when the pines are cleared off, the +oaks, having got just the start they want, and now secured favorable +conditions, immediately spring up to trees. + +The shade of a dense pine wood, is more unfavorable to the springing up of +pines of the same species than of oaks within it, though the former may +come up abundantly when the pines are cut, if there chance to be sound +seed in the ground. + +But when you cut off a lot of hard wood, very often the little pines mixed +with it have a similar start, for the squirrels have carried off the nuts +to the pines, and not to the more open wood, and they commonly make pretty +clean work of it; and moreover, if the wood was old, the sprouts will be +feeble or entirely fail; to say nothing about the soil being, in a +measure, exhausted for this kind of crop. + +If a pine wood is surrounded by a white oak one chiefly, white oaks may be +expected to succeed when the pines are cut. If it is surrounded, instead +by an edging of shrub-oaks, then you will probably have a dense shrub-oak +thicket. + +I have no time to go into details, but will say, in a word, that while the +wind is conveying the seeds of pines into hard woods and open lands, the +squirrels and other animals are conveying the seeds of oaks and walnuts +into the pine woods, and thus a rotation of crops is kept up. + +I affirmed this confidently many years ago, and an occasional examination +of dense pine woods confirmed me in my opinion. It has long been known to +observers that squirrels bury nuts in the ground, but I am not aware that +any one has thus accounted for the regular succession of forests. + +On the 24th of September, in 1857, as I was paddling down the Assabet, in +this town, I saw a red squirrel run along the bank under some herbage, +with something large in its mouth. It stopped near the foot of a hemlock, +within a couple of rods of me, and, hastily pawing a hole with its +forefeet, dropped its booty into it, covered it up, and retreated part way +up the trunk of the tree. As I approached the shore to examine the +deposit, the squirrel, descending part way, betrayed no little anxiety +about its treasure, and made two or three motions to recover it before it +finally retreated. Digging there, I found two green pig-nuts joined +together, with the thick husks on, buried about an inch and a half under +the reddish soil of decayed hemlock leaves,--just the right depth to plant +it. In short, this squirrel was then engaged in accomplishing two objects, +to wit, laying up a store of winter food for itself, and planting a +hickory wood for all creation. If the squirrel was killed, or neglected +its deposit, a hickory would spring up. The nearest hickory tree was +twenty rods distant. These nuts were there still just fourteen days later, +but were gone when I looked again, November 21, or six weeks later still. + +I have since examined more carefully several dense woods, which are said +to be, and are apparently exclusively pine, and always with the same +result. For instance, I walked the same day to a small, but very dense and +handsome white-pine grove, about fifteen rods square, in the east part of +this town. The trees are large for Concord, being from ten to twenty +inches in diameter, and as exclusively pine as any wood that I know. +Indeed, I selected this wood because I thought it the least likely to +contain anything else. It stands on an open plain or pasture, except that +it adjoins another small pine wood, which has a few little oaks in it, on +the southeast side. On every other side, it was at least thirty rods from +the nearest woods. Standing on the edge of this grove and looking through +it, for it is quite level and free from underwood, for the most part bare, +red-carpeted ground, you would have said that there was not a hard wood +tree in it, young or old. But on looking carefully along over its floor I +discovered, though it was not till my eye had got used to the search, +that, alternating with thin ferns, and small blueberry bushes, there was, +not merely here and there, but as often as every five feet and with a +degree of regularity, a little oak, from three to twelve inches high, and +in one place I found a green acorn dropped by the base of a pine. + +I confess, I was surprised to find my theory so perfectly proved in this +case. One of the principal agents in this planting, the red squirrels, +were all the while curiously inspecting me, while I was inspecting their +plantation. Some of the little oaks had been browsed by cows, which +resorted to this wood for shade. + +After seven or eight years, the hard woods evidently find such a locality +unfavorable to their growth, the pines being allowed to stand. As an +evidence of this, I observed a diseased red-maple twenty-five feet long, +which had been recently prostrated, though it was still covered with green +leaves, the only maple in any position in the wood. + +But although these oaks almost invariably die if the pines are not cut +down, it is probable that they do better for a few years under their +shelter than they would anywhere else. + +The very extensive and thorough experiments of the English, have at length +led them to adopt a method of raising oaks almost precisely like this, +which somewhat earlier had been adopted by nature and her squirrels here; +they have simply rediscovered the value of pines as nurses for oaks. The +English experimenters seem early and generally, to have found out the +importance of using trees of some kind, as nurse-plants for the young +oaks. I quote from Loudon what he describes as "the ultimatum on the +subject of planting and sheltering oaks,"--"an abstract of the practice +adopted by the government officers in the national forests" of England, +prepared by Alexander Milne. + +At first some oaks had been planted by themselves, and others mixed with +Scotch pines; "but in all cases," says Mr. Milne, "where oaks were planted +actually among the pines, and surrounded by them, [though the soil might +be inferior,] the oaks were found to be much the best." "For several years +past, the plan pursued has been to plant the inclosures with Scotch pines +only, [a tree very similar to our pitch-pine,] and when the pines have got +to the height of five or six feet, then to put in good strong oak plants +of about four or five years' growth among the pines,--not cutting away any +pines at first, unless they happen to be so strong and thick as to +overshadow the oaks. In about two years, it becomes necessary to shred the +branches of the pines, to give light and air to the oaks, and in about two +or three more years to begin gradually to remove the pines altogether, +taking out a certain number each year, so that, at the end of twenty or +twenty-five years, not a single Scotch pine shall be left; although, for +the first ten or twelve years, the plantation may have appeared to contain +nothing else but pine. The advantage of this mode of planting has been +found to be that the pines dry and ameliorate the soil, destroying the +coarse grass and brambles which frequently choke and injure oaks; and that +no mending over is necessary, as scarcely an oak so planted is found to +fail." + +Thus much the English planters have discovered by patient experiment, and, +for aught I know, they have taken out a patent for it; but they appear not +to have discovered that it was discovered before, and that they are merely +adopting the method of Nature, which she long ago made patent to all. +She is all the while planting the oaks amid the pines without our +knowledge, and at last, instead of government officers, we send a party of +wood-choppers to cut down the pines, and so rescue an oak forest, at which +we wonder as if it had dropped from the skies. + +As I walk amid hickories, even in August, I hear the sound of green +pig-nuts falling from time to time, cut off by the chickaree over my head. +In the fall, I notice on the ground, either within or in the neighborhood +of oak woods, on all sides of the town, stout oak twigs three or four +inches long, bearing half-a-dozen empty acorn-cups, which twigs have been +gnawed off by squirrels, on both sides of the nuts, in order to make them +more portable. The jays scream and the red squirrels scold while you are +clubbing and shaking the chestnut trees, for they are there on the same +errand, and two of a trade never agree. I frequently see a red or gray +squirrel cast down a green chestnut bur, as I am going through the woods, +and I used to think, sometimes, that they were cast at me. In fact, they +are so busy about it, in the midst of the chestnut season, that you cannot +stand long in the woods without hearing one fall. A sportsman told me that +he had, the day before,--that was in the middle of October,--seen a green +chestnut bur dropt on our great river meadow, fifty rods from the nearest +wood, and much further from the nearest chestnut-tree, and he could not +tell how it came there. Occasionally, when chestnutting in midwinter, I +find thirty or forty nuts in a pile, left in its gallery, just under the +leaves, by the common wood-mouse (_mus leucopus_). + +But especially, in the winter, the extent to which this transportation and +planting of nuts is carried on is made apparent by the snow. In almost +every wood, you will see where the red or gray squirrels have pawed down +through the snow in a hundred places, sometimes two feet deep, and almost +always directly to a nut or a pine-cone, as directly as if they had +started from it and bored upward,--which you and I could not have done. It +would be difficult for us to find one before the snow falls. Commonly, no +doubt, they had deposited them there in the fall. You wonder if they +remember the localities, or discover them by the scent. The red squirrel +commonly has its winter abode in the earth under a thicket of evergreens, +frequently under a small clump of evergreens in the midst of a deciduous +wood. If there are any nut-trees, which still retain their nuts, standing +at a distance without the wood, their paths often lead directly to and +from them. We, therefore, need not suppose an oak standing here and there +_in_ the wood in order to seed it, but if a few stand within twenty or +thirty rods of it, it is sufficient. + +I think that I may venture to say that every white-pine cone that falls to +the earth naturally in this town, before opening and losing its seeds, and +almost every pitch-pine one that falls at all, is cut off by a squirrel, +and they begin to pluck them long before they are ripe, so that when the +crop of white-pine cones is a small one, as it commonly is, they cut off +thus almost every one of these before it fairly ripens. I think, moreover, +that their design, if I may so speak, in cutting them off green, is, +partly, to prevent their opening and losing their seeds, for these are the +ones for which they dig through the snow, and the only white-pine cones +which contain anything then. I have counted in one heap, within a diameter +of four feet, the cores of 239 pitch-pine cones which had been cut off and +stripped by the red squirrel the previous winter. + +The nuts thus left on the surface, or buried just beneath it, are placed +in the most favorable circumstances for germinating. I have sometimes +wondered how those which merely fell on the surface of the earth got +planted; but, by the end of December, I find the chestnut of the same year +partially mixed with the mould, as it were, under the decaying and mouldy +leaves, where there is all the moisture and manure they want, for the nuts +fall first. In a plentiful year, a large proportion of the nuts are thus +covered loosely an inch deep, and are, of course, somewhat concealed from +squirrels. One winter, when the crop had been abundant, I got, with the +aid of a rake, many quarts of these nuts as late as the tenth of January, +and though some bought at the store the same day were more than half of +them mouldy, I did not find a single mouldy one among these which I picked +from under the wet and mouldy leaves, where they had been snowed on once +or twice. Nature knows how to pack them best. They were still plump and +tender. Apparently, they do not heat there, though wet. In the spring they +were all sprouting. + +Loudon says that "when the nut [of the common walnut of Europe] is to be +preserved through the winter for the purpose of planting in the following +spring, it should be laid in a rot-heap, as soon as gathered, with the +husk on; and the heap should be turned over frequently in the course of +the winter." + +Here, again, he is stealing Nature's "thunder." How can a poor mortal do +otherwise? for it is she that finds fingers to steal with, and the +treasure to be stolen. In the planting of the seeds of most trees, the +best gardeners do no more than follow Nature, though they may not know it. +Generally, both large and small ones are most sure to germinate, and +succeed best, when only beaten into the earth with the back of a spade, +and then covered with leaves or straw. These results to which planters +have arrived, remind us of the experience of Kane and his companions at +the North, who, when learning to live in that climate, were surprised to +find themselves steadily adopting the customs of the natives, simply +becoming Esquimaux. So, when we experiment in planting forests, we find +ourselves at last doing as Nature does. Would it not be well to consult +with Nature in the outset? for she is the most extensive and experienced +planter of us all, not excepting the Dukes of Athol. + +In short, they who have not attended particularly to this subject are but +little aware to what an extent quadrupeds and birds are employed, +especially in the fall, in collecting, and so disseminating and planting +the seeds of trees. It is the almost constant employment of the squirrels +at that season and you rarely meet with one that has not a nut in its +mouth, or is not just going to get one. One squirrel-hunter of this town +told me that he knew of a walnut-tree which bore particularly good nuts, +but that on going to gather them one fall, he found that he had been +anticipated by a family of a dozen red squirrels. He took out of the tree, +which was hollow, one bushel and three pecks by measurement, without the +husks, and they supplied him and his family for the winter. It would be +easy to multiply instances of this kind. How commonly in the fall you see +the cheek-pouches of the striped squirrel distended by a quantity of nuts! +This species gets its scientific name _Tamias_, or the steward, from its +habit of storing up nuts and other seeds. Look under a nut-tree a month +after the nuts have fallen, and see what proportion of sound nuts to the +abortive ones and shells you will find ordinarily. They have been already +eaten, or dispersed far and wide. The ground looks like a platform before +a grocery, where the gossips of the village sit to crack nuts and less +savory jokes. You have come, you would say, after the feast was over, and +are presented with the shells only. + +Occasionally, when threading the woods in the fall, you will hear a sound +as if some one had broken a twig, and, looking up, see a jay pecking at an +acorn, or you will see a flock of them at once about it, in the top of an +oak, and hear them break them off. They then fly to a suitable limb, and +placing the acorn under one foot, hammer away at it busily, making a sound +like a woodpecker's tapping, looking round from time to time to see if any +foe is approaching, and soon reach the meat, and nibble at it, holding up +their heads to swallow, while they hold the remainder very firmly with +their claws. Nevertheless, it often drops to the ground before the bird +has done with it. I can confirm what Wm. Bartram wrote to Wilson, the +Ornithologist, that "The jay is one of the most useful agents in the +economy of nature, for disseminating forest trees and other nuciferous and +hard-seeded vegetables on which they feed. Their chief employment during +the autumnal season is foraging to supply their winter stores. In +performing this necessary duty they drop abundance of seed in their flight +over fields, hedges, and by fences, where they alight to deposit them in +the post-holes, &c. It is remarkable what numbers of young trees rise up +in fields and pastures after a wet winter and spring. These birds alone +are capable, in a few years' time, to replant all the cleared lands." + +I have noticed that squirrels also frequently drop their nuts in open +land, which will still further account for the oaks and walnuts which +spring up in pastures, for, depend on it, every new tree comes from a +seed. When I examine the little oaks, one or two years old, in such +places, I invariably find the empty acorn from which they sprung. + +So far from the seed having lain dormant in the soil since oaks grew there +before, as many believe, it is well known that it is difficult to preserve +the vitality of acorns long enough to transport them to Europe; and it is +recommended in Loudon's Arboretum, as the safest course, to sprout them in +pots on the voyage. The same authority states that "very few acorns of any +species will germinate after having been kept a year," that beechmast, +"only retains its vital properties one year," and the black-walnut, +"seldom more than six months after it has ripened." I have frequently +found that in November, almost every acorn left on the ground had sprouted +or decayed. What with frost, drouth, moisture, and worms, the greater part +are soon destroyed. Yet it is stated by one botanical writer that "acorns +that have lain for centuries, on being ploughed up, have soon vegetated." + +Mr. George B. Emerson, in his valuable Report on the Trees and Shrubs of +this State, says of the pines: "The tenacity of life of the seeds is +remarkable. They will remain for many years unchanged in the ground, +protected by the coolness and deep shade of the forest above them. But +when the forest is removed, and the warmth of the sun admitted, they +immediately vegetate." Since he does not tell us on what observation his +remark is founded, I must doubt its truth. Besides, the experience of +nurserymen makes it the more questionable. + +The stories of wheat raised from seed buried with an ancient Egyptian, and +of raspberries raised from seed found in the stomach of a man in England, +who is supposed to have died sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago, are +generally discredited, simply because the evidence is not conclusive. + +Several men of science, Dr. Carpenter among them, have used the statement +that beach-plums sprang up in sand which was dug up forty miles inland in +Maine, to prove that the seed had lain there a very long time, and some +have inferred that the coast has receded so far. But it seems to me +necessary to their argument to show, first, that beach-plums grow only on +a beach. They are not uncommon here, which is about half that distance +from the shore; and I remember a dense patch a few miles north of us, +twenty-five miles inland, from which the fruit was annually carried to +market. How much further inland they grow, I know not. Dr. Chas. T. +Jackson speaks of finding "beach-plums" (perhaps they were this kind) more +than one hundred miles inland in Maine. + +It chances that similar objections lie against all the more notorious +instances of the kind on record. + +Yet I am prepared to believe that some seeds, especially small ones, may +retain their vitality for centuries under favorable circumstances. In the +spring of 1859, the old Hunt House, so called, in this town, whose chimney +bore the date 1703, was taken down. This stood on land which belonged to +John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts, and a part of the +house was evidently much older than the above date, and belonged to the +Winthrop family. For many years, I have ransacked this neighborhood for +plants, and I consider myself familiar with its productions. Thinking of +the seeds which are said to be sometimes dug up at an unusual depth in the +earth, and thus to reproduce long extinct plants, it occurred to me last +fall that some new or rare plants might have sprung up in the cellar of +this house, which had been covered from the light so long. Searching there +on the 22d of September, I found, among other rank weeds, a species of +nettle (_Urtica urens_), which I had not found before; dill, which I had +not seen growing spontaneously; the Jerusalem oak (_Chenopodium botrys_), +which I had seen wild in but one place; black nightshade (_Solanum +nigrum_), which is quite rare hereabouts, and common tobacco, which, +though it was often cultivated here in the last century, has for fifty +years been an unknown plant in this town, and a few months before this not +even I had heard that one man in the north part of the town, was +cultivating a few plants for his own use. I have no doubt that some or all +of these plants sprang from seeds which had long been buried under or +about that house, and that that tobacco is an additional evidence that the +plant was formerly cultivated here. The cellar has been filled up this +year, and four of those plants, including the tobacco, are now again +extinct in that locality. + +It is true, I have shown that the animals consume a great part of the +seeds of trees, and so, at least, effectually prevent their becoming +trees; but in all these cases, as I have said, the consumer is compelled +to be at the same time the disperser and planter, and this is the tax +which he pays to nature. I think it is Linnaeus, who says, that while the +swine is rooting for acorns, he is planting acorns. + +Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has +been, I have great faith in a seed--a, to me, equally mysterious origin +for it. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to +expect wonders. I shall even believe that the millennium is at hand, and +that the reign of justice is about to commence, when the Patent Office, or +Government, begins to distribute, and the people to plant the seeds of +these things.' + +In the spring of 1857, I planted six seeds sent to me from the Patent +Office, and labelled, I think, "_Poitrine jaune grosse,_" large yellow +squash. Two came up, and one bore a squash which weighed 123-1/2 pounds, +the other bore four, weighing together 186-1/4 pounds. Who would have +believed that there was 310 pounds of _poitrine jaune grosse_ in that +corner of my garden? These seeds were the bait I used to catch it, my +ferrets which I sent into its burrow, my brace of terriers which unearthed +it. A little mysterious hoeing and manuring was all the _abra cadabra +presto-change,_ that I used, and lo! true to the label, they found for me +310 pounds of _poitrine jaune grosse_ there, where it never was known to +be, nor was before. These talismen had perchance sprung from America at +first, and returned to it with unabated force. The big squash took a +premium at your fair that fall, and I understood that the man who bought +it, intended to sell the seeds for ten cents a piece. (Were they not cheap +at that?) But I have more hounds of the same breed. I learn that one which +I despatched to a distant town, true to its instinct, points to the large +yellow squash there, too, where no hound ever found it before, as its +ancestors did here and in France. + +Other seeds I have which will find other things in that corner of my +garden, in like fashion, almost any fruit you wish, every year for ages, +until the crop more than fills the whole garden. You have but little more +to do, than throw up your cap for entertainment these American days. +Perfect alchemists I keep, who can transmute substances without end; and +thus the corner of my garden is an inexhaustible treasure-chest. Here you +can dig, not gold, but the value which gold merely represents; and there +is no Signor Blitz about it. Yet farmers' sons will stare by the hour to +see a juggler draw ribbons from his throat, though he tells them it is all +deception. Surely, men love darkness rather than light. + + + +WALKING. + +[1862.] + + +I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as +contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil,--to regard man as an +inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of +society. I wish to make an extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic +one, for there are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the +school-committee, and every one of you will take care of that. + + * * * * * + +I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who +understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks,--who had a +genius, so to speak, for _sauntering_: which word is beautifully derived +"from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and +asked charity, under pretence of going _a la Sainte Terre_" to the Holy +Land, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a _Sainte-Terrer_," a +Saunterer,--a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their +walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who +do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, +however, would derive the word from _sans terre_, without land or a home, +which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, +but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful +sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest +vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant +than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the +shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which, indeed, is the +most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by +some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from +the hands of the Infidels. + +It is true, we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, +nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises. Our +expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old +hearth-side from which we set out. Half the walk is but retracing our +steps. We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit +of undying adventure, never to return,--prepared to send back our embalmed +hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms. If you are ready to leave +father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, +and never see them again,--if you have paid your debts, and made your +will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready +for a walk. + +To come down to my own experience, my companion and I, for I sometimes +have a companion, take pleasure in fancying ourselves knights of a new, or +rather an old, order,--not Equestrians or Chevaliers, not Ritters or +riders, but Walkers, a still more ancient and honorable class, I trust. +The chivalric and heroic spirit which once belonged to the Rider seems now +to reside in, or perchance to have subsided into, the Walker,--not the +Knight, but Walker Errant. He is a sort of fourth estate, outside of +Church and State and People. + +We have felt that we almost alone hereabouts practised this noble art; +though, to tell the truth, at least, if their own assertions are to be +received, moat of my townsmen would fain walk sometimes, as I do, but they +cannot. No wealth can buy the requisite leisure, freedom, and +independence, which are the capital in this profession. It comes only by +the grace of God. It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become +a walker. You must be born into the family of the Walkers. _Ambulator +nascitur, non fit._ Some of my townsmen, it is true, can remember and have +described to me some walks which they took ten years ago, in which they +were so blessed as to lose themselves for half an hour in the woods; but I +know very well that they have confined themselves to the highway ever +since, whatever pretensions they may make to belong to this select class. +No doubt they were elevated for a moment as by the reminiscence of a +previous state of existence, when even they were foresters and outlaws. + +"When he came to grene wode, + In a mery mornynge, +There he herde the notes small + Of byrdes mery syngynge. + +"It is ferre gone, sayd Robyn, + That I was last here; +Me lyste a lytell for to shote + At the donne dere." + +I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four +hours a day at least,--and it is commonly more than that,--sauntering +through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all +worldly engagements. You may safely say, A penny for your thoughts, or a +thousand pounds. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and +shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the +afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them,--as if the legs +were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon,--I think that they +deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago. + +I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some +rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh +hour of four o'clock in the afternoon, too late to redeem the day, when +the shades of night were already beginning to be mingled with the +daylight, have felt as if I had committed some sin to be atoned for,--I +confess that I am astonished at the power of endurance, to say nothing of +the moral insensibility, of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops +and offices the whole day for weeks and months, ay, and years almost +together. I know not what manner of stuff they are of,--sitting there now +at three o'clock in the afternoon, as if it were three o'clock in the +morning. Bonaparte may talk of the three-o'clock-in-the-morning courage, +but it is nothing to the courage which can sit down cheerfully at this +hour in the afternoon over against one's self whom you have known all the +morning, to starve out a garrison to whom you are bound by such strong +ties of sympathy. I wonder that about this time, or say between four and +five o'clock in the afternoon, too late for the morning papers and too +early for the evening ones, there is not a general explosion heard up and +down the street, scattering a legion of antiquated and house-bred notions +and whims to the four winds for an airing,--and so the evil cure itself. + +How womankind, who are confined to the house still more than men, stand it +I do not know; but I have ground to suspect that most of them do not +_stand_ it at all. When, early in a summer afternoon, we have been shaking +the dust of the village from the skirts of our garments, making haste past +those houses with purely Doric or Gothic fronts, which have such an air of +repose about them, my companion whispers that probably about these times +their occupants are all gone to bed. Then it is that I appreciate the +beauty and the glory of architecture, which itself never turns in, but +forever stands out and erect, keeping watch over the slumberers. + +No doubt temperament, and, above all, age, have a good deal to do with it. +As a man grows older, his ability to sit still and follow indoor +occupations increases. He grows vespertinal in his habits as the evening +of life approaches, till at last he comes forth only just before sundown, +and gets all the walk that he requires in half an hour. + +But the walking of which I speak has nothing in it akin to taking +exercise, as it is called, as the sick take medicine at stated hours,--as +the swinging of dumb-bells or chairs; but is itself the enterprise and +adventure of the day. If you would get exercise, go in search of the +springs of life. Think of a man's swinging dumb-bells for his health, when +those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him! + +Moreover, you must walk like a camel, which is said to be the only beast +which ruminates when walking. When a traveller asked Wordsworth's servant +to show him her master's study, she answered, "Here is his library, but +his study is out of doors." + +Living much out of doors, in the sun and wind, will no doubt produce a +certain roughness of character,--will cause a thicker cuticle to grow over +some of the finer qualities of our nature, as on the face and hands, or as +severe manual labor robs the hands of some of their delicacy of touch. So +staying in the house, on the other hand, may produce a softness and +smoothness, not to say thinness of skin, accompanied by an increased +sensibility to certain impressions. Perhaps we should be more susceptible +to some influences important to our intellectual and moral growth, if the +sun had shone and the wind blown on us a little less; and no doubt it is a +nice matter to proportion rightly the thick and thin skin. But methinks +that is a scurf that will fall off fast enough,--that the natural remedy +is to be found in the proportion which the night bears to the day, the +winter to the summer, thought to experience. There will be so much the +more air and sunshine in our thoughts. The callous palms of the laborer +are conversant with finer tissues of self-respect and heroism, whose touch +thrills the heart, than the languid fingers of idleness. That is mere +sentimentality that lies abed by day and thinks itself white, far from the +tan and callus of experience. + +When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become +of us, if we walked only in a garden or a mall? Even some sects of +philosophers have felt the necessity of importing the woods to themselves, +since they did not go to the woods. "They planted groves and walks of +Platanes," where they took _subdiales ambulationes_ in porticos open to +the air. Of course it is of no use to direct our steps to the woods, if +they do not carry us thither. I am alarmed when it happens that I have +walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In +my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my +obligations to society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily +shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head, and I +am not where my body is,--I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain +return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking +of something out of the woods? I suspect myself, and cannot help a +shudder, when I find myself so implicated even in what are called good +works,--for this may sometimes happen. + +My vicinity affords many good walks; and though for so many years I have +walked almost every day, and sometimes for several days together, I have +not yet exhausted them. An absolutely new prospect is a great happiness, +and I can still get this any afternoon. Two or three hours' walking will +carry me to as strange a country as I expect ever to see. A single +farmhouse which I had not seen before is sometimes as good as the +dominions of the King of Dahomey. There is in fact a sort of harmony +discoverable between the capabilities of the landscape within a circle of +ten miles' radius, or the limits of an afternoon walk, and the threescore +years and ten of human life. It will never become quite familiar to you. + +Nowadays almost all man's improvements, so called, as the building of +houses, and the cutting down of the forest and of all large trees, simply +deform the landscape, and make it more and more tame and cheap. A people +who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand! I saw the +fences half consumed, their ends lost in the middle of the prairie, and +some worldly miser with a surveyor looking after his bounds, while heaven +had taken place around him, and he did not see the angels going to and +fro, but was looking for an old post-hole in the midst of paradise. I +looked again, and saw him standing in the middle of a boggy, stygian fen, +surrounded by devils, and he had found his bounds without a doubt, three +little stones, where a stake had been driven, and looking nearer, I saw +that the Prince of Darkness was his surveyor. + +I can easily walk ten, fifteen, twenty, any number of miles, commencing at +my own door, without going by any house, without crossing a road except +where the fox and the mink do: first along by the river, and then the +brook, and then the meadow and the wood-side. There are square miles in my +vicinity which have no inhabitant. From many a hill I can see civilization +and the abodes of man afar. The farmers and their works are scarcely more +obvious than woodchucks and their burrows. Man and his affairs, church and +state and school, trade and commerce, and manufactures and agriculture, +even politics, the most alarming of them all,--I am pleased to see how +little space they occupy in the landscape. Politics is but a narrow field, +and that still narrower highway yonder leads to it. I sometimes direct the +traveller thither. If you would go to the political world, follow the +great road,--follow that market-man, keep his dust in your eyes, and it +will lead you straight to it; for it, too, has its place merely, and does +not occupy all space. I pass from it as from a bean-field into the forest, +and it is forgotten. In one half-hour I can walk off to some portion of +the earth's surface where a man does not stand from one year's end to +another, and there, consequently, politics are not, for they are but as +the cigar-smoke of a man. + +The village is the place to which the roads tend, a sort of expansion of +the highway, as a lake of a river. It is the body of which roads are the +arms and legs,--a trivial or quadrivial place, the thoroughfare and +ordinary of travellers. The word is from the Latin _villa_, which, +together with _via_, a way, or more anciently _ved_ and _vella_, Varro +derives from _veho_, to carry, because the villa is the place to and from +which things are carried. They who got their living by teaming were said +_vellaturam facere_. Hence, too, apparently, the Latin word _vilis_ and +our vile; also _villain_. This suggests what kind of degeneracy villagers +are liable to. They are wayworn by the travel that goes by and over them, +without travelling themselves. + +Some do not walk at all; others walk in the highways; a few walk across +lots. Roads are made for horses and men of business. I do not travel in +them much, comparatively, because I am not in a hurry to get to any tavern +or grocery or livery-stable or depot to which they lead. I am a good horse +to travel, but not from choice a roadster. The landscape-painter uses the +figures of men to mark a road. He would not make that use of my figure. I +walk out into a Nature such as the old prophets and poets, Menu, Moses, +Homer, Chaucer, walked in. You may name it America, but it is not America: +neither Atnericus Vespucius, nor Columbus, nor the rest were the +discoverers of it. There is a truer account of it in mythology than in any +history of America, so called, that I have seen. + +However, there are a few old roads that may be trodden with profit, as if +they led somewhere now that they are nearly discontinued. There is the Old +Marlborough Road, which does not go to Marlborough now, methinks, unless +that is Marlborough where it carries me. I am the bolder to speak of it +here, because I presume that there are one or two such roads in every +town. + + THE OLD MARLBOROUGH ROAD. + + Where they once dug for money, + But never found any; + Where sometimes Martial Miles + Singly files, + And Elijah Wood, + I fear for no good: + No other man, + Save Elisha Dugan,-- + O man of wild habits, + Partridges and rabbits, + Who hast no cares + Only to set snares, + Who liv'st all alone, + Close to the bone, + And where life is sweetest + Constantly eatest. +When the spring stirs my blood + With the instinct to travel, + I can get enough gravel +On the Old Marlborough Road. + Nobody repairs it, + For nobody wears it; + It is a living way, + As the Christians say. +Not many there be + Who enter therein, +Only the guests of the + Irishman Quin. +What is it, what is it, + But a direction out there, +And the bare possibility + Of going somewhere? + Great guide-boards of stone, + But travellers none; + Cenotaphs of the towns + Named on their crowns. + It is worth going to see + Where you _might_ be. + What king + Did the thing, + I am still wondering; + Set up how or when, + By what selectmen, + Gourgas or Lee, + Clark or Darby? + They're a great endeavor + To be something forever; + Blank tablets of stone, + Where a traveller might groan, + And in one sentence + Grave all that is known; + Which another might read, + In his extreme need. + I know one or two + Lines that would do, + Literature that might stand + All over the land, + Which a man could remember + Till next December, + And read again in the spring, + After the thawing. +If with fancy unfurled + You leave your abode, +You may go round the world + By the Old Marlborough Road. + +At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not private +property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative +freedom. But possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off +into so-called pleasure-grounds, in which a few will take a narrow and +exclusive pleasure only,--when fences shall be multiplied, and man-traps +and other engines invented to confine men to the _public_ road, and +walking over the surface of God's earth shall be construed to mean +trespassing on some gentleman's grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is +commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let us improve +our opportunities, then, before the evil days come. + + * * * * * + +What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will +walk? I believe that there is a subtile magnetism in Nature, which, if we +unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. It is not indifferent to +us which way we walk. There is a right way; but we are very liable from +heedlessness and stupidity to take the wrong one. We would fain take that +walk, never yet taken by us through this actual world, which is perfectly +symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior and ideal +world; and sometimes, no doubt, we find it difficult to choose our +direction, because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea. + +When I go out of the house for a walk, uncertain as yet whither I will +bend my steps, and submit myself to my instinct to decide for me, I find, +strange and whimsical as it may seem, that I finally and inevitably settle +southwest, toward some particular wood or meadow or deserted pasture or +hill in that direction. My needle is slow to settle,--varies a few +degrees, and does not always point due southwest, it is true, and it has +good authority for this 'variation, but it always settles between west and +south-southwest. The future lies that way to me, and the earth seems more +unexhausted and richer on that side. The outline which would bound my +walks would be, not a circle, but a parabola, or rather like one of those +cometary orbits which have been thought to be non-returning curves, in +this case opening westward, in which my house occupies the place of the +sun. I turn round and round irresolute sometimes for a quarter of an hour, +until I decide, for a thousandth time, that I will walk into the southwest +or west. Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free. Thither no +business leads me. It is hard for me to believe that I shall find fair +landscapes or sufficient wildness and freedom behind the eastern horizon. +I am not excited by the prospect of a walk thither; but I believe that the +forest which I see in the western horizon stretches uninterruptedly toward +the setting sun, and there are no towns nor cities in it of enough +consequence to disturb me. Let me live where I will, on this side is the +city, on that the wilderness, and ever I am leaving the city more and +more, and withdrawing into the wilderness. I should not lay so much stress +on this fact, if I did not believe that something like this is the +prevailing tendency of my countrymen. I must walk toward Oregon, and not +toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that +mankind progress from east to west. Within a few years we have witnessed +the phenomenon of a southeastward migration, in the settlement of +Australia; but this affects us as a retrograde movement, and, judging from +the moral and physical character of the first generation of Australians, +has not yet proved a successful experiment. The eastern Tartars think that +there is nothing west beyond Thibet. "The world ends there," say they, +"beyond there is nothing but a shoreless sea." It is unmitigated East +where they live. + +We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and +literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the +future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure. The Atlantic is a +Lethean stream, in our passage over which we have had an opportunity to +forget the Old World and its institutions. If we do not succeed this time, +there is perhaps one more chance for the race left before it arrives on +the banks of the Styx; and that is in the Lethe of the Pacific, which is +three times as wide. + +I know not how significant it is, or how far it is an evidence of +singularity, that an individual should thus consent in his pettiest walk +with the general movement of the race; but I know that something akin to +the migratory instinct in birds and quadrupeds,--which, in some instances, +is known to have affected the squirrel tribe, impelling them to a general +and mysterious movement, in which they were seen, say some, crossing the +broadest rivers, each on its particular chip, with its tail raised for a +sail, and bridging narrower streams with their dead,--that something like +the _furor_ which affects the domestic cattle in the spring, and which is +referred to a worm in their tails,--affects both nations and individuals, +either perennially or from time to time. Not a flock of wild geese cackles +over our town, but it to some extent unsettles the value of real estate +here, and, if I were a broker, I should probably take that disturbance +into account. + + "Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages, + And palmeres for to seken strange strondes." + +Every sunset which I witness inspires me with the desire to go to a West +as distant and as fair as that into which the sun goes down. He appears to +migrate westward daily, and tempt us to follow him. He is the Great +Western Pioneer whom the nations follow. We dream all night of those +mountain-ridges in the horizon, though they may be of vapor only, which +were last gilded by his rays. The island of Atlantis, and the islands and +gardens of the Hesperides, a sort of terrestrial paradise, appear to have +been the Great West of the ancients, enveloped in mystery and poetry. Who +has not seen in imagination, when looking into the sunset sky, the gardens +of the Hesperides, and the foundation of all those fables? + +Columbus felt the westward tendency more strongly than any before. He +obeyed it, and found a New World for Castile and Leon. The herd of men in +those days scented fresh pastures from afar. + + "And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, + And now was dropped into the western bay; + At last _he_ rose, and twitched his mantle blue; + To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new." + +Where on the globe can there be found an area of equal extent with that +occupied by the bulk of our States, so fertile and so rich and varied in +its productions, and at the same time so habitable by the European, as +this is? Michaux, who knew but part of them, says that "the species of +large trees are much more numerous in North America than in Europe; in the +United States there are more than one hundred and forty species that +exceed thirty feet in height; in France there are but thirty that attain +this size." Later botanists more than confirm his observations. Humboldt +came to America to realize his youthful dreams of a tropical vegetation, +and he beheld it in its greatest perfection in the primitive forests of +the Amazon, the most gigantic wilderness on the earth, which he has so +eloquently described. The geographer Guyot, himself a European, goes +farther,--farther than I am ready to follow him; yet not when he says,-- +"As the plant is made for the animal, as the vegetable world is made for +the animal world, America is made for the man of the Old World.... The man +of the Old World sets out upon his way. Leaving the highlands of Asia, he +descends from station to station towards Europe. Each of his steps is +marked by a new civilization superior to the preceding, by a greater power +of development. Arrived at the Atlantic, he pauses on the shore of this +unknown ocean, the bounds of which he knows not, and turns upon his +footprints for an instant." When he has exhausted the rich soil of Europe, +and reinvigorated himself, "then recommences his adventurous career +westward as in the earliest ages." So far Guyot. + +From this western impulse coming in contact with the barrier of the +Atlantic sprang the commerce and enterprise of modern times. The younger +Michaux, in his "Travels West of the Alleghanies in 1802," says that the +common inquiry in the newly settled West was, "'From what part of the +world have you come?' As if these vast and fertile regions would naturally +be the place of meeting and common country of all the inhabitants of the +globe." + +To use an obsolete Latin word, I might say, _Ex Oriente lux; ex Occidente +FRUX_. From the East light; from the West fruit. + +Sir Francis, Head, an English traveller and a Governor-General of Canada, +tells us that "in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the New +World, Nature has not only outlined her works on a larger scale, but has +painted the whole picture with brighter and more costly colors than she +used in delineating and in beautifying the Old World.... The heavens of +America appear infinitely higher, the sky is bluer, the air is fresher, +the cold is intenser, the moon looks larger, the stars are brighter, the +thunder is louder, the lightning is vivider, the wind is stronger, the +rain is heavier, the mountains are higher, the rivers longer, the forests +bigger, the plains broader." This statement will do at least to set +against Buffon's account of this part of the world and its productions. + +Linnaeus said long ago, "Nescio quae facies _laeta, glabra_ plantis +Americanis: I know not what there is of joyous and smooth in the aspect of +American plants;" and I think that in this country there are no, or at +most very few, _Africanae bestiae_, African beasts, as the Romans called +them, and that in this respect also it is peculiarly fitted for the +habitation of man. We are told that within three miles of the centre of +the East-Indian city of Singapore, some of the inhabitants are annually +carried off by tigers; but the traveller can lie down in the woods at +night almost anywhere in North America without fear of wild beasts. + +These are encouraging testimonies. If the moon looks larger here than in +Europe, probably the sun looks larger also. If the heavens of America +appear infinitely higher, and the stars brighter, I trust that these facts +are symbolical of the height to which the philosophy and poetry and +religion of her inhabitants may one day soar. At length, perchance, the +immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the +intimations that star it as much brighter. For I believe that climate does +thus react on man,--as there is something in the mountain-air that feeds +the spirit and inspires. Will not man grow to greater perfection +intellectually as well as physically under these influences? Or is it +unimportant how many foggy days there are in his life? I trust that we +shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and +more ethereal, as our sky,--our understanding more comprehensive and +broader, like our plains,--our intellect generally on a grander scale, +like our thunder and lightning, our rivers and mountains and forests,--and +our hearts shall even correspond in breadth and depth and grandeur to our +inland seas. Perchance there will appear to the traveller something, he +knows not what, of _laeta_ and _glabra_, of joyous and serene, in our very +faces. Else to what end does the world go on, and why was America +discovered? + +To Americans I hardly need to say,-- + + "Westward the star of empire takes its way." + +As a true patriot, I should be ashamed to think that Adam in paradise was +more favorably situated on the whole than the backwoodsman in this +country. + +Our sympathies in Massachusetts are not confined to New England; though we +may be estranged from the South, we sympathize with the West. There is the +home of the younger sons, as among the Scandinavians they took to the sea +for their inheritance. It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more +important to understand even the slang of to-day. + +Some months ago I went to see a panorama of the Rhine. It was like a dream +of the Middle Ages. I floated down its historic stream in something more +than imagination, under bridges built by the Romans, and repaired by later +heroes, past cities and castles whose very names were music to my ears, +and each of which was the subject of a legend. There were Ehrenbreitstein +and Rolandseck and Coblentz, which I knew only in history. They were ruins +that interested me chiefly. There seemed to come up from its waters and +its vine-clad hills and valleys a hushed music as of Crusaders departing +for the Holy Land. I floated along under the spell of enchantment, as if I +had been transported to an heroic age, and breathed an atmosphere of +chivalry. + +Soon after, I went to see a panorama of the Mississippi, and as I worked +my way up the river in the light of to-day, and saw the steamboats wooding +up, counted the rising cities, gazed on the fresh ruins of Nauvoo, beheld +the Indians moving west across the stream, and, as before I had looked up +the Moselle now looked up the Ohio and the Missouri, and heard the legends +of Dubuque and of Wenona's Cliff,--still thinking more of the future than +of the past or present,--I saw that this was a Rhine stream of a different +kind; that the foundations of castles were yet to be laid, and the famous +bridges were yet to be thrown over the river; and I felt that _this was +the heroic age itself_, though we know it not, for the hero is commonly +the simplest and obscurest of men. + + * * * * * + +The West of which I speak is but another name for the Wild; and what I +have been preparing to say is, that in Wildness is the preservation of the +World. Every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the Wild. The cities +import it at any price. Men plough and sail for it. From the forest and +wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind. Our ancestors +were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is +not a meaningless fable. The founders of every State which has risen to +eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild +source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the +wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the +Northern forests who were. + +I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which the +corn grows. We require an infusion of hemlock-spruce or arbor-vitae in our +tea. There is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and +from mere gluttony. The Hottentots eagerly devour the marrow of the koodoo +and other antelopes raw, as a matter of course. Some of our Northern +Indians eat raw the marrow of the Arctic reindeer, as well as various +other parts, including the summits of the antlers, as long as they are +soft. And herein, perchance, they have stolen a march on the cooks of +Paris. They get what usually goes to feed the fire. This is probably +better than stall-fed beef and slaughter-house pork to make a man of. Give +me a wildness whose glance no civilization can endure,--as if we lived on +the marrow of koodoos devoured raw. + +There are some intervals which border the strain of the wood-thrush, to +which I would migrate,--wild lands where no settler has squatted; to +which, methinks, I am already acclimated. + +The African hunter Cummings tells us that the skin of the eland, as well +as that of most other antelopes just killed, emits the most delicious +perfume of trees and grass. I would have every man so much like a wild +antelope, so much a part and parcel of Nature, that his very person should +thus sweetly advertise our senses of his presence, and remind us of those +parts of Nature which he most haunts. I feel no disposition to be +satirical, when the trapper's coat emits the odor of musquash even; it is +a sweeter scent to me than that which commonly exhales from the merchant's +or the scholar's garments. When I go into their wardrobes and handle their +vestments, I am reminded of no grassy plains and flowery meads which they +have frequented, but of dusty merchants' exchanges and libraries rather. + +A tanned skin is something more than respectable, and perhaps olive is a +fitter color than white for a man,--a denizen of the woods. "The pale +white man!" I do not wonder that the African pitied him. Darwin the +naturalist says, "A white man bathing by the side of a Tahitian was like a +plant bleached by the gardener's art, compared with a fine, dark green +one, growing vigorously in the open fields." + +Ben Jonson exclaims,-- + + "How near to good is what is fair!" + +So I would say,-- + + How near to good is what is _wild_! + +Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet +subdued to man, its presence refreshes him. One who pressed forward +incessantly and never rested from his labors, who grew fast and made +infinite demands on life, would always find himself in a new country or +wilderness, and surrounded by the raw material of life. He would be +climbing over the prostrate stems of primitive forest-trees. + +Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in +towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps. When, +formerly, I have analyzed my partiality for some farm which I had +contemplated purchasing, I have frequently found that I was attracted +solely by a few square rods of impermeable and unfathomable bog,--a +natural sink in one corner of it. That was the jewel which dazzled me. I +derive more of my subsistence from the swamps which surround my native +town than from the cultivated gardens in the village. There are no richer +parterres to my eyes than the dense beds of dwarf andromeda _(Cassandra +calyculata_) which cover these tender places on the earth's surface. +Botany cannot go farther than tell me the names of the shrubs which grow +there,--the high-blueberry, panicled andromeda, lamb-kill, azalea, and +rhodora,--all standing in the quaking sphagnum. I often think that I +should like to have my house front on this mass of dull red bushes, +omitting other flower plots and borders, transplanted spruce and trim box, +even gravelled walks,--to have this fertile spot under my windows, not a +few imported barrow-fulls of soil only to cover the sand which was thrown +out in digging the cellar. Why not put my house, my parlor, behind this +plot, instead of behind that meagre assemblage of curiosities, that poor +apology for a Nature and Art, which I call my front-yard? It is an effort +to clear up and make a decent appearance when the carpenter and mason have +departed, though done as much for the passer-by as the dweller within. The +most tasteful front-yard fence was never an agreeable object of study to +me; the most elaborate ornaments, acorn-tops, or what not, soon wearied +and disgusted me. Bring your sills up to the very edge of the swamp, then, +(though it may not be the best place for a dry cellar,) so that there be +no access on that side to citizens. Front-yards are not made to walk in, +but, at most, through, and you could go in the back way. + +Yes, though you may think me perverse, if it were proposed to me to dwell +in the neighborhood of the most beautiful garden that ever human art +contrived, or else of a Dismal swamp, I should certainly decide for the +swamp. How vain, then, have been all your labors, citizens, for me! + +My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give +me the ocean, the desert or the wilderness! In the desert, pure air and +solitude compensate for want of moisture and fertility. The traveller +Burton says of it,--"Your _morale_ improves; you become frank and cordial, +hospitable and single-minded..... In the desert, spirituous liquors excite +only disgust. There is a keen enjoyment in a mere animal existence." They +who have been travelling long on the steppes of Tartary say,--"On +reentering cultivated lands, the agitation, perplexity, and turmoil of +civilization oppressed and suffocated us; the air seemed to fail us, and +we felt every moment as if about to die of asphyxia." When I would +recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most +interminable, and, to the citizen, most dismal swamp. I enter a swamp as a +sacred place,--a _sanctum sanctorum_. There is the strength, the marrow of +Nature. The wild-wood covers the virgin mould,--and the same soil is good +for men and for trees. A man's health requires as many acres of meadow to +his prospect as his farm does loads of muck. There are the strong meats on +which he feeds. A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than +by the woods and swamps that surround it. A township where one primitive +forest waves above, while another primitive forest rots below,--such a +town is fitted to raise not only corn and potatoes, but poets and +philosophers for the coming ages. In such a soil grew Homer and Confucius +and the rest, and out of such a wilderness comes the Reformer eating +locusts and wild honey. + +To preserve wild animals implies generally the creation of a forest for +them to dwell in or resort to. So it is with man. A hundred years ago they +sold bark in our streets peeled from our own woods. In the very aspect of +those primitive and rugged trees, there was, methinks, a tanning principle +which hardened and consolidated the fibres of men's thoughts. Ah! already +I shudder for these comparatively degenerate days of my native village, +when you cannot collect a load of bark of good thickness,--and we no +longer produce tar and turpentine. + +The civilized nations--Greece, Rome, England--have been sustained by the +primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand. They survive as +long as the soil is not exhausted. Alas for human culture! little is to be +expected of a nation, when the vegetable mould is exhausted, and it is +compelled to make manure of the bones of its fathers. There the poet +sustains himself merely by his own superfluous fat, and the philosopher +comes down on his marrow-bones. + +It is said to be the task of the American "to work the virgin soil," and +that "agriculture here already assumes proportions unknown everywhere +else." I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he +redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects +more natural. I was surveying for a man the other day a single straight +line one hundred and thirty-two rods long, through a swamp, at whose +entrance might have been written the words which Dante read over the +entrance to the infernal regions,--"Leave all hope, ye that enter,"--that +is, of ever getting out again; where at one time I saw my employer +actually up to his neck and swimming for his life in his property, though +it was still winter. He had another similar swamp which I could not survey +at all, because it was completely under water, and nevertheless, with +regard to a third swamp, which I did _survey_ from a distance, he remarked +to me, true to his instincts, that he would not part with it for any +consideration, on account of the mud which it contained. And that man +intends to put a girdling ditch round the whole in the course of forty +months, and so redeem it by the magic of his spade. I refer to him only as +the type of a class. + +The weapons with which we have gained our most important victories, which +should be handed down as heirlooms from father to son, are not the sword +and the lance, but the bushwhack, the turf-cutter, the spade, and the +bog-hoe, rusted with the blood of many a meadow, and begrimed with the +dust of many a hard-fought field. The very winds blew the Indian's +cornfield into the meadow, and pointed out the way which he had not the +skill to follow. He had no better implement with which to intrench himself +in the land than a clam-shell. But the farmer is armed with plough and +spade. + +In Literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but +another name for tameness. It is the uncivilized free and wild thinking in +"Hamlet" and the "Iliad," in all the Scriptures and Mythologies, not +learned in the schools, that delights us. As the wild duck is more swift +and beautiful than the tame, so is the wild--the mallard--thought, which +'mid falling dews wings its way above the fens. A truly good book is +something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and +perfect, as a wild flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the +jungles of the East. Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, +like the lightning's flash, which perchance shatters the temple of +knowledge itself,--and not a taper lighted at the hearth-stone of the +race, which pales before the light of common day. + +English literature, from the days of the minstrels to the Lake Poets,-- +Chaucer and Spenser and Milton, and even Shakspeare, included,--breathes +no quite fresh and in this sense wild strain. It is an essentially tame +and civilized literature, reflecting Greece and Rome. Her wilderness is a +green wood,--her wild man a Robin Hood. There is plenty of genial love of +Nature, but not so much of Nature herself. Her chronicles inform us when +her wild animals, but not when the wild man in her, became extinct. + +The science of Humboldt is one thing, poetry is another thing. The poet +to-day, notwithstanding all the discoveries of science, and the +accumulated learning of mankind, enjoys no advantage over Homer. + +Where is the literature which gives expression to Nature? He would be a +poet who could impress the winds and streams into his service, to speak +for him; who nailed words to their primitive senses, as farmers drive down +stakes in the spring, which the frost has heaved; who derived his words as +often as he used them,--transplanted them to his page with earth adhering +to their roots; whose words were so true and fresh and natural that they +would appear to expand like the buds at the approach of spring, though +they lay half-smothered between two musty leaves in a library,--ay, to +bloom and bear fruit there, after their kind, annually, for the faithful +reader, in sympathy with surrounding Nature. + +I do not know of any poetry to quote which adequately expresses this +yearning for the Wild. Approached from this side, the best poetry is tame. +I do not know where to find in any literature, ancient or modern, any +account which contents me of that Nature with which even I am acquainted. +You will perceive that I demand something which no Augustan nor +Elizabethan age, which no _culture_, in short, can give. Mythology comes +nearer to it than anything. How much more fertile a Nature, at least, has +Grecian mythology its root in than English literature! Mythology is the +crop which the Old World bore before its soil was exhausted, before the +fancy and imagination were affected with blight; and which it still bears, +wherever its pristine vigor is unabated. All other literatures endure only +as the elms which overshadow our houses; but this is like the great +dragon-tree of the Western Isles, as old as mankind, and, whether that +does or not, will endure as long; for the decay of other literatures makes +the soil in which it thrives. + +The West is preparing to add its fables to those of the East. The valleys +of the Ganges, the Nile, and the Rhine, having yielded their crop, it +remains to be seen what the valleys of the Amazon, the Plate, the Orinoco, +the St. Lawrence, and the Mississippi will produce. Perchance, when, in +the course of ages, American liberty has become a fiction of the past,--as +it is to some extent a fiction of the present,--the poets of the world +will be inspired by American mythology. + +The wildest dreams of wild men, even, are not the less true, though they +may not recommend themselves to the sense which is most common among +Englishmen and Americans today. It is not every truth that recommends +itself to the common sense. Nature has a place for the wild clematis as +well as for the cabbage. Some expressions of truth are reminiscent,-- +others merely _sensible_, as the phrase is,--others prophetic. Some forms +of disease, even, may prophesy forms of health. The geologist has +discovered that the figures of serpents, griffins, flying dragons, and +other fanciful embellishments of heraldry, have their prototypes in the +forms of fossil species which were extinct before man was created, and +hence "indicate a faint and shadowy knowledge of a previous state of +organic existence." The Hindoos dreamed that the earth rested on an +elephant, and the elephant on a tortoise, and the tortoise on a serpent; +and though it may be an unimportant coincidence, it will not be out of +place here to state, that a fossil tortoise has lately been discovered in +Asia large enough to support an elephant. I confess that I am partial to +these wild fancies, which transcend the order of time and development. +They are the sublimest recreation of the intellect. The partridge loves +peas, but not those that go with her into the pot. + +In short, all good things are wild and free. There is something in +a strain of music, whether produced by an instrument or by the human +voice,--take the sound of a bugle in a summer night, for instance,--which +by its wildness, to speak without satire, reminds me of the cries emitted +by wild beasts in their native forests. It is so much of their wildness as +I can understand. Give me for my friends and neighbors wild men, not tame +ones. The wildness of the savage is but a faint symbol of the awful ferity +with which good men and lovers meet. + +I love even to see the domestic animals reassert their native rights,--any +evidence that they have not wholly lost their original wild habits and +vigor; as when my neighbor's cow breaks out of her pasture early in the +spring and boldly swims the river, a cold, gray tide, twenty-five or +thirty rods wide, swollen by the melted snow. It is the buffalo crossing +the Mississippi. This exploit confers some dignity on the herd in my +eyes,--already dignified. The seeds of instinct are preserved under the +thick hides of cattle and horses, like seeds in the bowels of the earth, +an indefinite period. + +Any sportiveness in cattle is unexpected. I saw one day a herd of a dozen +bullocks and cows running about and frisking in unwieldly sport, like huge +rats, even like kittens. They shook their heads, raised their tails, and +rushed up and down a hill, and I perceived by their horns, as well as by +their activity, their relation to the deer tribe. But, alas! a sudden loud +_Whoa_! would have damped their ardor at once, reduced them from venison +to beef, and stiffened their sides and sinews like the locomotive. Who but +the Evil One has cried, "Whoa!" to mankind? Indeed, the life of cattle, +like that of many men, is but a sort of locomotiveness; they move a side +at a time, and man, by his machinery, is meeting the horse and the ox +half-way. Whatever part the whip has touched is thenceforth palsied. Who +would ever think of a _side_ of any of the supple cat tribe, as we speak +of a _side_ of beef? + +I rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made +the slaves of men, and that men themselves have some, wild oats still left +to sow before they become submissive members of society. Undoubtedly, all +men are not equally fit subjects for civilization; and because the +majority, like dogs and sheep, are tame by inherited disposition, this is +no reason why the others should have their natures broken that they may be +reduced to the same level. Men are in the main alike, but they were made +several in order that they might be various. If a low use is to be served, +one man will do nearly or quite as well as another; if a high one, +individual excellence is to be regarded. Any man can stop a hole to keep +the wind away, but no other man could serve so rare a use as the author of +this illustration did. Confucius says,--"The skins of the tiger and the +leopard, when they are tanned, are as the skins of the dog and the sheep +tanned." But it is not the part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more +than it is to make sheep ferocious; and tanning their skins for shoes is +not the best use to which they can be put. + +When looking over a list of men's names in a foreign language, as of +military officers, or of authors who have written on a particular subject, +I am reminded once more that there is nothing in a name. The name +Menschikoff, for instance, has nothing in it to my ears more human than a +whisker, and it may belong to a rat. As the names of the Poles and +Russians are to us, so are ours to them. It is as if they had been named +by the child's rigmarole,--_Iery wiery ichery van, tittle-tol-tan._ I see +in my mind a herd of wild creatures swarming over the earth, and to each +the herdsman has affixed some barbarous sound in his own dialect. The +names of men are of course as cheap and meaningless as _Bose_ and _Tray_, +the names of dogs. + +Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy, if men were named +merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know +the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are +not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a +name of his own,--because we have not supposed that he had a character of +his own. At present our only true names are nicknames. I knew a boy who, +from his peculiar energy, was called "Buster" by his playmates, and this +rightly supplanted his Christian name. Some travellers tell us that an +Indian had no name given him at first, but earned it, and his name was his +fame; and among some tribes he acquired a new name with every new exploit. +It is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely, who has +earned neither name nor fame. + +I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but still see men +in herds for all them. A familiar name cannot make a man less strange to +me. It may be given to a savage who retains in secret his own wild title +earned in the woods. We have a wild savage in us, and a savage name is +perchance somewhere recorded as ours. I see that my neighbor, who bears +the familiar epithet William, or Edwin, takes it off with his jacket. It +does not adhere to him when asleep or in anger, or aroused by any passion +or inspiration. I seem to hear pronounced by some of his kin at such a +time his original wild name in some jaw-breaking or else melodious tongue. + +Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all +around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the +leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to +that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man,--a sort of +breeding in and in, which produces at most a merely English nobility, a +civilization destined to have a speedy limit. + +In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a +certain precocity. When we should still be growing children, we are +already little men. Give me a culture which imports much muck from the +meadows, and deepens the soil,--not that which trusts to heating manures, +and improved implements and modes of culture only! + +Many a poor sore-eyed student that I have heard of would grow faster, both +intellectually and physically, if, instead of sitting up so very late, he +honestly slumbered a fool's allowance. + +There may be an excess even of informing light. Niepce, a Frenchman, +discovered "actinism," that power in the sun's rays which produces a +chemical effect,--that granite rocks, and stone structures, and statues of +metal, "are all alike destructively acted upon during the hours of +sunshine, and, but for provisions of Nature no less wonderful, would soon +perish under the delicate touch of the most subtile of the agencies of +the universe." But he observed that "those bodies which underwent this +change during the daylight possessed the power of restoring themselves to +their original conditions during the hours of night, when this excitement +was no-longer influencing them." Hence it has been inferred that "the +hours of darkness are as necessary to the inorganic creation as we know +night and sleep are to the organic kingdom." Not even does the moon shine +every night, but gives place to darkness. + +I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more +than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, +but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an +immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the +annual decay of the vegetation which it supports. + +There are other letters for the child to learn than those which Cadmus +invented. The Spaniards have a good term to express this wild and dusky +knowledge,--_Gramatica parda_, tawny grammar,--a kind of mother-wit +derived from that same leopard to which I have referred. + +We have heard of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It is +said that knowledge is power; and the like. Methinks there is equal need +of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance, what we will call +Beautiful Knowledge, a knowledge useful in a higher sense: for what is +most of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know +something, which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance? What we +call knowledge is often our positive ignorance; ignorance our negative +knowledge. By long years of patient industry and reading of the +newspapers,--for what are the libraries of science but files of +newspapers?--a man accumulates a myriad facts, lays them up in his memory, +and then when in some spring of his life he saunters abroad into the Great +Fields of thought, he, as it were, goes to grass like a horse, and leaves +all his harness behind in the stable. I would say to the Society for the +Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, sometimes,--Go to grass. You have eaten hay +long enough. The spring has come with its green crop. The very cows are +driven to their country pastures before the end of May; though I have +heard of one unnatural farmer who kept his cow in the barn and fed her on +hay all the year round. So, frequently, the Society for the Diffusion of +Useful Knowledge treats its cattle. + +A man's ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but beautiful,--while his +knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless, besides being +ugly. Which is the best man to deal with,--he who knows nothing about a +subject, and, what is extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, or he +who really knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all? + +My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in +atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that +we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do +not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than +a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of +all that we called Knowledge before,--a discovery that there are more +things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. It is +the lighting up of the mist by the sun. Man cannot _know_ in any higher +sense than this, any more than he can look serenely and with impunity in +the face of sun: [Greek: 'Os thi noon, ou keiuou uoaeseis],--"You will not +perceive that, as perceiving a particular thing," say the Chaldean +Oracles. + +There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we +may obey. We may study the laws of matter at and for our convenience, but +a successful life knows no law. It is an unfortunate discovery certainly, +that of a law which binds us where we did not know before that we were +bound. Live free, child of the mist,--and with respect to knowledge we are +all children of the mist. The man who takes the liberty to live is +superior to all the laws, by virtue of his relation to the law-maker. +"That is active duty," says the Vishnu Parana, "which is not for our +bondage; that is knowledge which is for our liberation: all other duty is +good only unto weariness; all other knowledge is only the cleverness of an +artist." + + * * * * * + +It is remarkable how few events or crises there are in our histories; how +little exercised we have been in our minds; how few experiences we have +had. I would fain be assured that I am growing apace and rankly, though my +very growth disturb this dull equanimity,--though it be with struggle +through long, dark, muggy nights or seasons of gloom. It would be well, if +all our lives were a divine tragedy even, instead of this trivial comedy +or farce. Dante, Bunyan, and others, appear to have been exercised in +their minds more than we: they were subjected to a kind of culture such as +our district schools and colleges do not contemplate. Even Mahomet, though +many may scream at his name, had a good deal more to live for, ay, and to +die for, than they have commonly. + +When, at rare intervals, some thought visits one, as perchance he is +walking on a railroad, then indeed the cars go by without his hearing +them. But soon, by some inexorable law, our life goes by and the cars +return. + + "Gentle breeze, that wanderest unseen, + And bendest the thistles round Loira of storms, + Traveller of the windy glens, + Why hast thou left my ear so soon?" + +While almost all men feel an attraction drawing them to society, few are +attracted strongly to Nature. In their relation to Nature men appear to me +for the most part, notwithstanding their arts, lower than the animals. It +is not often a beautiful relation, as in the case of the animals. How +little appreciation of the beauty of the landscape there is among us! We +have to be told that the Greeks called the world [Greek: Kosmos], Beauty, +or Order, but we do not see clearly why they did so, and we esteem it at +best only a curious philological fact. + +For my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of border +life, on the confines of a world into which I make occasional and +transional and transient forays only, and my patriotism and allegiance +to the State into whose territories I seem to retreat are those of a +moss-trooper. Unto a life which I call natural I would gladly follow even +a will-o'-the-wisp through bogs and sloughs unimaginable, but no moon nor +fire-fly has shown me the causeway to it. Nature is a personality so vast +and universal that we have never seen one of her features. The walker in +the familiar fields which stretch around my native town sometimes finds +himself in another land than is described in their owners' deeds, as it +were in some far-away field on the confines of the actual Concord, where +her jurisdiction ceases, and the idea which the word Concord suggests +ceases to be suggested. These farms which I have myself surveyed, these +bounds which I have set up, appear dimly still as through a mist; but they +have no chemistry to fix them; they fade from the surface of the glass; +and the picture which the painter painted stands out dimly from beneath. +The world with which we are commonly acquainted leaves no trace, and it +will have no anniversary. + +I took a walk on Spaulding's Farm the other afternoon. I saw the setting +sun lighting up the opposite side of a stately pine wood. Its golden rays +straggled into the aisles of the wood as into some noble hall. I was +impressed as if some ancient and altogether admirable and shining family +had settled there in that part of the land called Concord, unknown to +me,--to whom the sun was servant,--who had not gone into society in +the village,--who had not been called on. I saw their park, their +pleasure-ground, beyond through the wood, in Spaulding's cranberry-meadow. +The pines furnished them with gables as they grew. Their house was not +obvious, to vision; the trees grew through it. I do not know whether I +heard the sounds of a suppressed hilarity or not. They seemed to recline +on the sunbeams. They have sons and daughters. They are quite well. The +farmer's cart-path, which leads directly through their hall, does not in +the least put them out,--as the muddy bottom of a pool is sometimes seen +through the reflected skies. They never heard of Spaulding, and do not +know that he is their neighbor,--notwithstanding I heard him whistle as he +drove his team through the house. Nothing can equal the serenity of their +lives. Their coat of arms is simply a lichen. I saw it painted on the +pines and oaks. Their attics were in the tops of the trees. They are of no +politics. There was no noise of labor. I did not perceive that they were +weaving or spinning. Yet I did detect, when the wind lulled and hearing +was done away, the finest imaginable sweet musical hum,--as of a distant +hive in May, which perchance was the sound of their thinking. They had no +idle thoughts, and no one without could see their work, for their industry +was not as in knots and excrescences embayed. + +But I find it difficult to remember them. They fade irrevocably out of my +mind even now while I speak and endeavor to recall them, and recollect +myself. It is only after a long and serious effort to recollect my best +thoughts that I become again aware of their cohabitancy. If it were not +for such families as this, I think I should move out of Concord. + + * * * * * + +We are accustomed to say in New England that few and fewer pigeons visit +us every year. Our forests furnish no mast for them. So, it would seem, +few and fewer thoughts visit each growing man from year to year, for the +grove in our minds is laid waste,--sold to feed unnecessary fires of +ambition, or sent to mill, and there is scarcely a twig left for them to +perch on. They no longer build nor breed with us. In some more genial +season, perchance, a faint shadow flits across the landscape of the mind, +cast by the _wings_ of some thought in its vernal or autumnal migration, +but, looking up, we are unable to detect the substance of the thought +itself. Our winged thoughts are turned to poultry. They no longer soar, +and they attain only to a Shanghai and Cochin-China grandeur. Those +_gra-a-ate thoughts_, those _gra-a-ate men_ you hear of! + + * * * * * + +We hug the earth,--how rarely we mount! Methinks we might elevate +ourselves a little more. We might climb a tree, at least. I found my +account in climbing a tree once. It was a tall white pine, on the top of a +hill; and though I got well pitched, I was well paid for it, for I +discovered new mountains in the horizon which I had never seen before,--so +much more of the earth and the heavens. I might have walked about the foot +of the tree for threescore years and ten, and yet I certainly should never +have seen them. But, above all, I discovered around me,--it was near the +end of June,--on the ends of the topmost branches only, a few minute and +delicate red cone-like blossoms, the fertile flower of the white pine +looking heavenward. I carried straightway to the village the topmost +spire, and showed it to stranger jurymen who walked the streets,--for it +was court-week,--and to farmers and lumber-dealers and wood-choppers and +hunters, and not one had ever seen the like before, but they wondered as +at a star dropped down. Tell of ancient architects finishing their works +on the tops of columns as perfectly as on the lower and more visible +parts! Nature has from the first expanded the minute blossoms of the +forest only toward the heavens, above men's heads and unobserved by them. +We see only the flowers that are under our feet in the meadows. The pines +have developed their delicate blossoms on the highest twigs of the wood +every summer for ages, as well over the heads of Nature's red children as +of her white ones; yet scarcely a farmer or hunter in the land has ever +seen them. + + * * * * * + +Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present. He is blessed over +all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the +past. Unless our philosophy hears the cock crow in every barn-yard within +our horizon, it is belated. That sound commonly reminds us that we are +growing rusty and antique in our employments and habits of thought. His +philosophy comes down to a more recent time than ours. There is something +suggested by it that is a newer testament,--the gospel according to this +moment. He has not fallen astern; he has got up early, and kept up early, +and to be where he is to be in season, in the foremost rank of time. It is +an expression of the health and soundness of Nature, a brag for all the +world,--healthiness as of a spring burst forth, a new fountain of the +Muses, to celebrate this last instant of time. Where he lives no fugitive +slave laws are passed. Who has not betrayed his master many times since +last he heard that note? + +The merit of this bird's strain is in its freedom from all plaintiveness. +The singer can easily move us to tears or to laughter, but where is he who +can excite in us a pure morning joy? When, in doleful dumps, breaking the +awful stillness of our wooden sidewalk on a Sunday, or, perchance, a +watcher in the house of mourning, I hear a cockerel crow far or near, I +think to myself, "There is one of us well, at any rate,"--and with a +sudden gush return to my senses. + +We had a remarkable sunset one day last November. I was walking in a +meadow, the source of a small brook, when the sun at last, just before +setting, after a cold gray day, reached a clear stratum in the horizon, +and the softest, brightest morning sunlight fell on the dry grass and on +the stems of the trees in the opposite horizon, and on the leaves of the +shrub-oaks on the hill-side, while our shadows stretched long over the +meadow eastward, as if we were the only motes in its beams. It was such a +light as we could not have imagined a moment before, and the air also was +so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a paradise of that +meadow. When we reflected that this was not a solitary phenomenon, never +to happen again, but that it would happen forever and ever an infinite +number of evenings, and cheer and reassure the latest child that walked +there, it was more glorious still. + +The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible, with all +the glory and splendor that it lavishes on cities, and perchance, as it +has never set before,--where there is but a solitary marsh-hawk to have +his wings gilded by it, or only a musquash looks out from his cabin, and +there is some little black-veined brook in the midst of the marsh, just +beginning to meander, winding slowly round a decaying stump. We walked in +so pure and bright a light, gilding the withered grass and leaves, so +softly and serenely bright, I thought I had never bathed in such a golden +flood, without a ripple or a murmur to it. The west side of every wood and +rising ground gleamed like the boundary of Elysium, and the sun on our +backs seemed like a gentle herdsman driving us home at evening. + +So we saunter toward the Holy Land, till one day the sun shall shine more +brightly than ever he has done, shall perchance shine into our minds and +hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light, as warm +and serene and golden as on a bank-side in autumn. + + + +AUTUMNAL TINTS. + +[1862.] + + +Europeans coming to America are surprised by the brilliancy of our +autumnal foliage. There is no account of such a phenomenon in English +poetry, because the trees acquire but few bright colors there. The most +that Thomson says on this subject in his "Autumn" is contained in the +lines,-- + + "But see the fading many-colored woods, + Shade deepening over shade, the country round + Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dun, + Of every hue, from wan declining green to sooty dark":-- + +and in the line in which he speaks of + + "Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods." + +The autumnal change of our woods has not made a deep impression on our own +literature yet. October has hardly tinged our poetry. + +A great many, who have spent their lives in cities, and have never chanced +to come into the country at this season, have never seen this, the flower, +or rather the ripe fruit, of the year. I remember riding with one such +citizen, who, though a fortnight too, late for the most brilliant tints, +was taken by surprise, and would not believe that there had been any +brighter. He had never heard of this phenomenon before. Not only many in +our towns have never witnessed it, but it is scarcely remembered by the +majority from year to year. + +Most appear to confound changed leaves with withered ones, as if they were +to confound ripe apples with rotten ones. I think that the change to some +higher color in a leaf is an evidence that it has arrived at a late and +perfect maturity, answering to the maturity of fruits. It is generally the +lowest and oldest leaves which change first. But as the perfect winged and +usually bright-colored insect is short-lived, so the leaves ripen but to +fall. + +Generally, every fruit, on ripening, and just before it falls, when it +commences a more independent and individual existence, requiring less +nourishment from any source, and that not so much from the earth through +its stem as from the sun and air, acquires a bright tint. So do leaves. +The physiologist says it is "due to an increased absorption of oxygen." +That is the scientific account of the matter,--only a reassertion of the +fact. But I am more interested in the rosy cheek than I am to know what +particular diet the maiden fed on. The very forest and herbage, the +pellicle of the earth, must acquire a bright color, an evidence of its +ripeness,--as if the globe itself were a fruit on its stem, with ever a +cheek toward the sun. + +Flowers are but colored leaves, fruits but ripe ones. The edible part of +most fruits is, as the physiologist says, "the parenchyma or fleshy tissue +of the leaf," of which they are formed. + +Our appetites have commonly confined our views of ripeness and its +phenomena, color, mellowness, and perfectness, to the fruits which we eat, +and we are wont to forget that an immense harvest which we do not eat, +hardly use at all, is annually ripened by Nature. At our annual Cattle +Shows and Horticultural Exhibitions, we make, as we think, a great show of +fair fruits, destined, however, to a rather ignoble end, fruits not valued +for their beauty chiefly. But round about and within our towns there is +annually another show of fruits, on an infinitely grander scale, fruits +which address our taste for beauty alone. + +October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round +the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint +just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset +sky; November the later twilight. + +I formerly thought that it would be worth the while to get a specimen leaf +from each changing tree, shrub, and herbaceous plant, when it had acquired +its brightest characteristic color, in its transition from the green to +the brown state, outline it, and copy its color exactly, with paint in a +book, which should be entitled, "_October, or Autumnal Tints_";--beginning +with the earliest reddening,--Woodbine and the lake of radical leaves, and +coming down through the Maples, Hickories, and Sumachs, and many +beautifully freckled leaves less generally known, to the latest Oaks and +Aspens. What a memento such a book would be! You would need only to turn +over its leaves to take a ramble through the autumn woods whenever you +pleased. Or if I could preserve the leaves themselves, unfaded, it would +be better still. I have made but little progress toward such a book, but I +have endeavored, instead, to describe all these bright tints in the order +in which they present themselves. The following are some extracts from my +notes. + +THE PURPLE GRASSES. + +By the twentieth of August, everywhere in woods and swamps, we are +reminded of the fall, both by the richly spotted Sarsaparilla-leaves and +Brakes, and the withering and blackened Skunk-Cabbage and Hellebore, and, +by the river-side, the already blackening Pontederia. + +The Purple Grass (_Eragrostis pectinacea_) is now in the height of its +beauty. I remember still when I first noticed this grass particularly. +Standing on a hillside near our river, I saw, thirty or forty rods off, a +stripe of purple half a dozen rods long, under the edge of a wood, where +the ground sloped toward a meadow. It was as high-colored and interesting, +though not quite so bright, as the patches of Rhexia, being a darker +purple, like a berry's stain laid on close and thick. On going to and +examining it, I found it to be a kind of grass in bloom, hardly a foot +high, with but few green blades, and a fine spreading panicle of purple +flowers, a shallow, purplish mist trembling around me. Close at hand it +appeared but a dull purple, and made little impression on the eye; it was +even difficult to detect; and if you plucked a single plant, you were +surprised to find how thin it was, and how little color it had. But viewed +at a distance in a favorable light, it was of a fine lively purple, +flower-like, enriching the earth. Such puny causes combine to produce +these decided effects. I was the more surprised and charmed because grass +is commonly of a sober and humble color. + +With its beautiful purple blush it reminds me, and supplies the place, of +the Rhexia, which is now leaving off, and it is one of the most +interesting phenomena of August. The finest patches of it grow on waste +strips or selvages of land at the base of dry hills, just above the edge +of the meadows, where the greedy mower does not deign to swing his scythe; +for this is a thin and poor grass, beneath his notice. Or, it may be, +because it is so beautiful he does not know that it exists; for the same +eye does not see this and Timothy. He carefully gets the meadow hay and +the more nutritious grasses which grow next to that, but he leaves this +fine purple mist for the walker's harvest,--fodder for his fancy stock. +Higher up the hill, perchance, grow also Blackberries, John's-Wort, and +neglected, withered, and wiry June-Grass. How fortunate that it grows in +such places, and not in the midst of the rank grasses which are annually +cut! Nature thus keeps use and beauty distinct. I know many such +localities, where it does not fail to present itself annually, and paint +the earth with its blush. It grows on the gentle slopes, either in a +continuous patch or in scattered and rounded tufts a foot in diameter, and +it lasts till it is killed by the first smart frosts. + +In most plants the corolla or calyx is the part which attains the highest +color, and is the most attractive; in many it is the seed-vessel or fruit; +in others, as the Red Maple, the leaves; and in others still it is the +very culm itself which is the principal flower or blooming part. + +The last is especially the case with the Poke or Garget (_Phytolacca +decandra_). Some which stand under our cliffs quite dazzle me with their +purple stems now and early in September. They are as interesting to me as +most flowers, and one of the most important fruits of our autumn. Every +part is flower, (or fruit,) such is its superfluity of color,--stem, +branch, peduncle, pedicel, petiole, and even the at length yellowish +purple-veined leaves. Its cylindrical racemes of berries of various hues, +from green to dark purple, six or seven inches long, are gracefully +drooping on all sides, offering repasts to the birds; and even the sepals +from which the birds have picked the berries are a brilliant lake-red, +with crimson flame-like reflections, equal to anything of the kind,--all +on fire with ripeness. Hence the _lacca_, from _lac_, lake. There are at +the same time flower-buds, flowers, green berries, dark purple or ripe +ones, and these flower-like sepals, all on the same plant. + +We love to see any redness in the vegetation of the temperate zone. It is +the color of colors. This plant speaks to our blood. It asks a bright sun +on it to make it show to best advantage, and it must be seen at this +season of the year. On warm hillsides its stems are ripe by the +twenty-third of August. At that date I walked through a beautiful grove of +them, six or seven feet high, on the side of one of our cliffs, where they +ripen early. Quite to the ground they were a deep brilliant purple with a +bloom, contrasting with the still clear green leaves. It appears a rare +triumph of Nature to have produced and perfected such a plant, as if this +were enough for a summer. What a perfect maturity it arrives at! It is the +emblem of a successful life concluded by a death not premature, which is +an ornament to Nature. What if we were to mature as perfectly, root and +branch, glowing in the midst of our decay, like the Poke! I confess that +it excites me to behold them. I cut one for a cane, for I would fain +handle and lean on it. I love to press the berries between my fingers, and +see their juice staining my hand. To walk amid these upright, branching +casks of purple wine, which retain and diffuse a sunset glow, tasting each +one with your eye, instead of counting the pipes on a London dock, what a +privilege! For Nature's vintage is not confined to the vine. Our poets +have sung of wine, the product of a foreign plant which commonly they +never saw, as if our own plants had no juice in them more than the +singers. Indeed, this has been called by some the American Grape, and, +though a native of America, its juices are used in some foreign countries +to improve the color of the wine; so that the poetaster may be celebrating +the virtues of the Poke without knowing it. Here are berries enough to +paint afresh the western sky, and play the bacchanal with, if you will. +And what flutes its ensanguined stems would make, to be used in such a +dance! It is truly a royal plant. I could spend the evening of the year +musing amid the Poke-stems. And perchance amid these groves might arise at +last a new school of philosophy or poetry. It lasts all through September. + +At the same time with this, or near the end of August, a to me very +interesting genus of grasses, Andropogons, or Beard-Grasses, is in +its prime. _Andropogon furcatus_, Forked Beard-Grass, or call it +Purple-Fingered Grass; _Andropogon scoparius,_ Purple Wood Grass; and +_Andropogon_ (now called _Sorghum_) _nutans_, Indian-Grass. The first is a +very tall and slender-culmed grass, three to seven feet high, with four or +five purple finger-like spikes raying upward from the top. The second is +also quite slender, growing in tufts two feet high by one wide, with culms +often somewhat curving, which, as the spikes go out of bloom, have a +whitish fuzzy look. These two are prevailing grasses at this season on +dry and sandy fields and hillsides. The culms of both, not to mention +their pretty flowers, reflect a purple tinge, and help to declare the +ripeness of the year. Perhaps I have the more sympathy with them because +they are despised by the farmer, and occupy sterile and neglected soil. +They are high-colored, like ripe grapes, and express a maturity which the +spring did not suggest. Only the August sun could have thus burnished +these culms and leaves. The farmer has long since done his upland haying, +and he will not condescend to bring his scythe to where these slender wild +grasses have at length flowered thinly; you often see spaces of bare sand +amid them. But I walk encouraged between the tufts of Purple Wood-Grass, +over the sandy fields, and along the edge of the Shrub-Oaks, glad to +recognize these simple contemporaries. With thoughts cutting a broad +swathe I "get" them, with horse-raking thoughts I gather them into +windrows. The fine-eared poet may hear the whetting of my scythe. These +two were almost the first grasses that I learned to distinguish, for I had +not known by how many friends I was surrounded,--I had seen them simply as +grasses standing. The purple of their culms also excites me like that of +the Poke-Weed stems. + +Think what refuge there is for one, before August is over, from college +commencements and society that isolates! I can skulk amid the tufts +of Purple Wood-Grass on the borders of the "Great Fields." Wherever I +walk these afternoons, the Purple-Fingered Grass also stands like a +guide-board, and points my thoughts to more poetic paths than they have +lately travelled. + +A man shall perhaps rush by and trample down plants as high as his head, +and cannot be said to know that they exist, though he may have cut many +tons of them, littered his stables with them, and fed them to his cattle +for years. Yet, if he ever favorably attends to them, he may be overcome +by their beauty. Each humblest plant, or weed, as we call it, stands there +to express some thought or mood of ours; and yet how long it stands in +vain! I had walked over those Great Fields so many Augusts, and never yet +distinctly recognized these purple companions that I had there. I had +brushed against them and trodden on them, forsooth; and now, at last, +they, as it were, rose up and blessed me. Beauty and true wealth are +always thus cheap and despised. Heaven might be defined as the place which +men avoid. Who can doubt that these grasses, which the farmer says are of +no account to him, find some compensation in your appreciation of them? I +may say that I never saw them before,--though, when I came to look them +face to face, there did come down to me a purple gleam from previous +years; and now, wherever I go, I see hardly anything else. It is the reign +and presidency of the Andropogons. + +Almost the very sands confess the ripening influence of the August sun, +and methinks, together with the slender grasses waving over them, reflect +a purple tinge. The impurpled sands! Such is the consequence of all this +sunshine absorbed into the pores of plants and of the earth. All sap or +blood is now wine-colored. At last we have not only the purple sea, but +the purple land. + +The Chestnut Beard-Grass, Indian-Grass, or Wood-Grass, growing here and +there in waste places, but more rare than the former, (from two to four or +five feet high,) is still handsomer and of more vivid colors than its +congeners, and might well have caught the Indian's eye. It has a long, +narrow, one-sided, and slightly nodding panicle of bright purple and +yellow flowers, like a banner raised above its reedy leaves. These bright +standards are now advanced on the distant hill-sides, not in large armies, +but in scattered troops or single file, like the red men. They stand thus +fair and bright, representative of the race which they are named after, +but for the most part unobserved as they. The expression of this grass +haunted me for a week, after I first passed and noticed it, like the +glance of an eye. It stands like an Indian chief taking a last look at his +favorite hunting-grounds. + +THE RED MAPLE. + +By the twenty-fifth of September, the Red Maples generally are beginning +to be ripe. Some large ones have been conspicuously changing for a week, +and some single trees are now very brilliant. I notice a small one, half a +mile off across a meadow, against the green wood-side there, a far +brighter red than the blossoms of any tree in summer, and more +conspicuous. I have observed this tree for several autumns invariably +changing earlier than its fellows, just as one tree ripens its fruit +earlier than another. It might serve to mark the season, perhaps. I should +be sorry, if it were cut down. I know of two or three such trees in +different parts of our town, which might, perhaps, be propagated from, as +early ripeners or September trees, and their seed be advertised in the +market, as well as that of radishes, if we cared as much about them. + +At present these burning bushes stand chiefly along the edge of the +meadows, or I distinguish them afar on the hillsides here and there. +Sometimes you will see many small ones in a swamp turned quite crimson +when all other trees around are still perfectly green, and the former +appear so much the brighter for it. They take you by surprise, as you are +going by on one side, across the fields, thus early in the season, as if +it were some gay encampment of the red men, or other foresters, of whose +arrival you had not heard. + +Some single trees, wholly bright scarlet, seen against others of their +kind still freshly green, or against evergreens, are more memorable than +whole groves will be by-and-by. How beautiful, when a whole tree is like +one great scarlet fruit full of ripe juices, every leaf, from lowest limb +to topmost spire, all aglow, especially if you look toward the sun! What +more remarkable object can there be in the landscape? Visible for miles, +too fair to be believed. If such a phenomenon occurred but once, it would +be handed down by tradition to posterity, and get into the mythology at +last. + +The whole tree thus ripening in advance of its fellows attains a singular +preeminence, and sometimes maintains it for a week or two. I am thrilled +at the sight of it, bearing aloft its scarlet standard for the regiment of +green-clad foresters around, and I go half a mile out of my way to examine +it. A single tree becomes thus the crowning beauty of some meadowy vale, +and the expression of the whole surrounding forest is at once more +spirited for it. + +A small Red Maple has grown, perchance, far away at the head of some +retired valley, a mile from any road, unobserved. It has faithfully +discharged the duties of a Maple there, all winter and summer, neglected +none of its economies, but added to its stature in the virtue which +belongs to a Maple, by a steady growth for so many months, never having +gone gadding abroad, and is nearer heaven than it was in the spring. +It has faithfully husbanded its sap, and afforded a shelter to the +wandering bird, has long since ripened its seeds and committed them to +the winds, and has the satisfaction of knowing, perhaps, that a thousand +little well-behaved Maples are already settled in life somewhere. +It deserves well of Mapledom. Its leaves have been asking it from time +to time, in a whisper, "When shall we redden?" And now, in this month +of September, this month of travelling, when men are hastening to the +sea-side, or the mountains, or the lakes, this modest Maple, still without +budging an inch, travels in its reputation,--runs up its scarlet flag on +that hillside, which shows that it has finished its summer's work before +all other trees, and withdraws from the contest. At the eleventh hour of +the year, the tree which no scrutiny could have detected here when it was +most industrious is thus, by the tint of its maturity, by its very +blushes, revealed at last to the careless and distant traveller, and leads +his thoughts away from the dusty road into those brave solitudes which it +inhabits. It flashes out conspicuous with all the virtue and beauty of a +Maple,--_Acer rubrum_. We may now read its title, or _rubric_, clear. Its +_virtues_, not its sins, are as scarlet. + +Notwithstanding the Red Maple is the most intense scarlet of any of our +trees, the Sugar-Maple has been the most celebrated, and Michaux in his +"Sylva" does not speak of the autumnal color of the former. About the +second of October, these trees, both large and small, are most brilliant, +though many are still green. In "sprout-lands" they seem to vie with one +another, and ever some particular one in the midst of the crowd will be of +a peculiarly pure scarlet, and by its more intense color attract our eye +even at a distance, and carry off the palm. A large Red-Maple swamp, when +at the height of its change, is the most obviously brilliant of all +tangible things, where I dwell, so abundant is this tree with us. It +varies much both in form and color. A great many are merely yellow, more +scarlet, others scarlet deepening into crimson, more red than common. Look +at yonder swamp of Maples mixed with Pines, at the base of a Pine-clad +hill, a quarter of a mile off, so that you get the full effect of the +bright colors, without detecting the imperfections of the leaves, and see +their yellow, scarlet, and crimson fires, of all tints, mingled and +contrasted with the green. Some Maples are yet green, only yellow or +crimson-tipped on the edges of their flakes, like the edges of a Hazel-Nut +burr; some are wholly brilliant scarlet, raying out regularly and finely +every way, bilaterally, like the veins of a leaf; others, of more +irregular form, when I turn my head slightly, emptying out some of its +earthiness and concealing the trunk of the tree, seem to rest heavily +flake on flake, like yellow and scarlet clouds, wreath upon wreath, or +like snowdrifts driving through the air, stratified by the wind. It adds +greatly to the beauty of such a swamp at this season, that, even though +there may be no other trees interspersed, it is not seen as a simple mass +of color, but, different trees being of different colors and hues, the +outline of each crescent tree-top is distinct, and where one laps on to +another. Yet a painter would hardly venture to make them thus distinct a +quarter of a mile off. + +As I go across a meadow directly toward a low rising ground this bright +afternoon, I see, some fifty rods off toward the sun, the top of a Maple +swamp just appearing over the sheeny russet edge of the hill, a stripe +apparently twenty rods long by ten feet deep, of the most intensely +brilliant scarlet, orange, and yellow, equal to any flowers or fruits, or +any tints ever painted. As I advance, lowering the edge of the hill which +makes the firm foreground or lower frame of the picture, the depth of the +brilliant grove revealed steadily increases, suggesting that the whole of +the inclosed valley is filled with such color. One wonders that the +tithing-men and fathers of the town are not out to see what the trees mean +by their high colors and exuberance of spirits, fearing that some mischief +is brewing. I do not see what the Puritans did at this season, when the +Maples blaze out in scarlet. They certainly could not have worshipped in +groves then. Perhaps that is what they built meeting-houses and fenced +them round with horse-sheds for. + +THE ELM. + +Now, too, the first of October, or later, the Elms are at the height of +their autumnal beauty, great brownish-yellow masses, warm from their +September oven, hanging over the highway Their leaves are perfectly ripe. +I wonder if there is any answering ripeness in the lives of the men who +live beneath them. As I look down our street, which is lined with them, +they remind me both by their form and color of yellowing sheaves of grain, +as if the harvest had indeed come to the village itself, and we might +expect to find some maturity and _flavor_ in the thoughts of the villagers +at last. Under those bright rustling yellow piles just ready to fall on +the heads of the walkers, how can any crudity or greenness of thought or +act prevail? When I stand where half a dozen large Elms droop over a +house, it is as if I stood within a ripe pumpkin-rind, and I feel as +mellow as if I were the pulp, though I may be somewhat stringy and seedy +withal. What is the late greenness of the English Elm, like a cucumber out +of season, which does not know when to have done, compared with the early +and golden maturity of the American tree? The street is the scene of a +great harvest-home. It would be worth the while to set out these trees, if +only for their autumnal value. Think of these great yellow canopies or +parasols held over our heads and houses by the mile together, making the +village all one and compact,--an _ulmarium_, which is at the same time a +nursery of men! And then how gently and unobserved they drop their burden +and let in the sun when it is wanted, their leaves not heard when they +fall on our roofs and in our streets; and thus the village parasol is shut +up and put away! I see the market-man driving into the village, and +disappearing under its canopy of Elm-tops, with _his_ crop, as into a +great granary or barn-yard. I am tempted to go thither as to a husking of +thoughts, now dry and ripe, and ready to be separated from their +integuments; but, alas! I foresee that it will be chiefly husks and little +thought, blasted pig-corn, fit only for cob-meal,--for, as you sow, so +shall you reap. + +FALLEN LEAVES. + +By the sixth of October the leaves generally begin to fall, in successive +showers, after frost or rain; but the principal leaf-harvest, the acme of +the _Fall_, is commonly about the sixteenth. Some morning at that date +there is perhaps a harder frost than we have seen, and ice formed under +the pump, and now, when the morning wind rises, the leaves come down in +denser showers than ever. They suddenly form thick beds or carpets on the +ground, in this gentle air, or even without wind, just the size and form +of the tree above. Some trees, as small Hickories, appear to have dropped +their leaves instantaneously, as a soldier grounds arms at a signal; and +those of the Hickory, being bright yellow still, though withered, reflect +a blaze of light from the ground where they lie. Down they have come on +all sides, at the first earnest touch of autumn's wand, making a sound +like rain. + +Or else it is after moist and rainy weather that we notice how great a +fall of leaves there has been in the night, though it may not yet be the +touch that loosens the Rock-Maple leaf. The streets are thickly strewn +with the trophies, and fallen Elm-leaves make a dark brown pavement under +our feet. After some remarkably warm Indian-summer day or days, I perceive +that it is the unusual heat which, more than anything, causes the leaves +to fall, there having been, perhaps, no frost nor rain for some time. The +intense heat suddenly ripens and wilts them, just as it softens and ripens +peaches and other fruits, and causes them to drop. + +The leaves of late Red Maples, still bright, strew the earth, often +crimson-spotted on a yellow ground, like some wild apples,--though they +preserve these bright colors on the ground but a day or two, especially +if it rains. On causeways I go by trees here and there all bare and +smoke-like, having lost their brilliant clothing; but there it lies, +nearly as bright as ever, on the ground on one side, and making nearly as +regular a figure as lately on the tree, I would rather say that I first +observe the trees thus flat on the ground like a permanent colored shadow, +and they suggest to look for the boughs that bore them. A queen might be +proud to walk where these gallant trees have spread their bright cloaks in +the mud. I see wagons roll over them as a shadow or a reflection, and the +drivers heed them just as little as they did their shadows before. + +Birds'-nests, in the Huckleberry and other shrubs, and in trees, are +already being filled with the withered leaves. So many have fallen in the +woods, that a squirrel cannot run after a falling nut without being heard. +Boys are raking them in the streets, if only for the pleasure of dealing +with such clean crisp substances. Some sweep the paths scrupulously neat, +and then stand to see the next breath strew them with new trophies. The +swamp-floor is thickly covered, and the _Lycopodium lucidulum_ looks +suddenly greener amid them. In dense woods they half-cover pools that are +three or four rods long. The other day I could hardly find a well-known +spring, and even suspected that it had dried up, for it was completely +concealed by freshly fallen leaves; and when I swept them aside and +revealed it, it was like striking the earth, with Aaron's rod, for a new +spring. Wet grounds about the edges of swamps look dry with them. At one +swamp, where I was surveying, thinking to step on a leafy shore from a +rail, I got into the water more than a foot deep. When I go to the river +the day after the principal fall of leaves, the sixteenth, I find my boat +all covered, bottom and seats, with the leaves of the Golden Willow under +which it is moored, and I set sail with a cargo of them rustling under my +feet. If I empty it, it will be full again to-morrow. I do not regard them +as litter, to be swept out, but accept them as suitable straw or matting +for the bottom of my carriage. When I turn up into the mouth of the +Assabet, which is wooded, large fleets of leaves are floating on its +surface, as it were getting out to sea, with room to tack; but next the +shore, a little farther up, they are thicker than foam, quite concealing +the water for a rod in width, under and amid the Alders, Button-Bushes, +and Maples, still perfectly light and dry, with fibre unrelaxed; and at a +rocky bend where they are met and stopped by the morning wind, they +sometimes form a broad and dense crescent quite across the river. When I +turn my prow that way, and the wave which it makes strikes them, list what +a pleasant rustling from these dry substances grating on one another! +Often it is their undulation only which reveals the water beneath them. +Also every motion of the wood-turtle on the shore is betrayed by their +rustling there. Or even in mid-channel, when the wind rises, I hear them +blown with a rustling sound. Higher up they are slowly moving round and +round in some great eddy which the river makes, as that at the "Leaning +Hemlocks," where the water is deep, and the current is wearing into the +bank. + +Perchance, in the afternoon of such a day, when the water is perfectly +calm and full of reflections, I paddle gently down the main stream, and, +turning up the Assabet, reach a quiet cove, where I unexpectedly find +myself surrounded by myriads of leaves, like fellow-voyagers, which seem +to have the same purpose, or want of purpose, with myself. See this great +fleet of scattered leaf-boats which we paddle amid, in this smooth +river-bay, each one curled up on every side by the sun's skill, each nerve +a stiff spruce-knee,--like boats of hide, and of all patterns, Charon's +boat probably among the rest, and some with lofty prows and poops, like +the stately vessels of the ancients, scarcely moving in the sluggish +current,--like the great fleets, the dense Chinese cities of boats, with +which you mingle on entering some great mart, some New York or Canton, +which we are all steadily approaching together. How gently each has been +deposited on the water! No violence has been used towards them yet, +though, perchance, palpitating hearts were present at the launching. And +painted ducks, too, the splendid wood-duck among the rest, often come to +sail and float amid the painted leaves,--barks of a nobler model still! + +What wholesome herb-drinks are to be had in the swamps now! What strong +medicinal, but rich, scents from the decaying leaves! The rain falling on +the freshly dried herbs and leaves, and filling the pools and ditches into +which they have dropped thus clean and rigid, will soon convert them into +tea,--green, black, brown, and yellow teas, of all degrees of strength, +enough to set all Nature a gossiping. Whether we drink them or not, as +yet, before their strength is drawn, these leaves, dried on great Nature's +coppers, are of such various pure and delicate tints as might make the +fame of Oriental teas. + +How they are mixed up, of all species, Oak and Maple and Chestnut and +Birch! But Nature is not cluttered with them; she is a perfect husbandman; +she stores them all. Consider what a vast crop is thus annually shed on +the earth! This, more than any mere grain or seed, is the great harvest of +the year. The trees are now repaying the earth with interest what they +have taken from it. They are discounting. They are about to add a leaf's +thickness to the depth of the soil. This is the beautiful way in which +Nature gets her muck, while I chaffer with this man and that, who talks to +me about sulphur and the cost of carting. We are all the richer for their +decay. I am more interested in this crop than in the English grass alone +or in the corn. It prepares the virgin mould for future cornfields and +forests, on which the earth fattens. It keeps our homestead in good heart. + +For beautiful variety no crop can be compared with this. Here is not +merely the plain yellow of the grains, but nearly all the colors that we +know, the brightest blue not excepted: the early blushing Maple, the +Poison-Sumach blazing its sins as scarlet, the mulberry Ash, the rich +chrome-yellow of the Poplars, the brilliant red Huckleberry, with which +the hills' backs are painted, like those of sheep. The frost touches them, +and, with the slightest breath of returning day or jarring of earth's +axle, see in what showers they come floating down! The ground is all +party-colored with them. But they still live in the soil, whose fertility +and bulk they increase, and in the forests that spring from it. They stoop +to rise, to mount higher in coming years, by subtle chemistry, climbing by +the sap in the trees, and the sapling's first fruits thus shed, transmuted +at last, may adorn its crown, when, in after-years, it has become the +monarch of the forest. + +It is pleasant to walk over the beds of these fresh, crisp, and rustling +leaves. How beautifully they go to their graves! how gently lay themselves +down and turn to mould!--painted of a thousand hues, and fit to make the +beds of us living. So they troop to their last resting-place, light and +frisky. They put on no weeds, but merrily they go scampering over the +earth, selecting the spot, choosing a lot, ordering no iron fence, +whispering all through the woods about it,--some choosing the spot where +the bodies of men are mouldering beneath, and meeting them half-way. How +many flutterings before they rest quietly in their graves! They that +soared so loftily, how contentedly they return to dust again, and are laid +low, resigned to lie and decay at the foot of the tree, and afford +nourishment to new generations of their kind, as well as to flutter on +high! They teach us how to die. One wonders if the time will ever come +when men, with their boasted faith in immortality, will lie down as +gracefully and as ripe,--with such an Indian-summer serenity will shed +their bodies, as they do their hair and nails. + +When the leaves fall, the whole earth is a cemetery pleasant to walk in. I +love to wander and muse over them in their graves. Here are no lying nor +vain epitaphs. What though you own no lot at Mount Auburn? Your lot is +surely cast somewhere in this vast cemetery, which has been consecrated +from of old. You need attend no auction to secure a place. There is room +enough here. The Loose-strife shall bloom and the Huckleberry-bird sing +over your bones. The woodman and hunter shall be your sextons, and the +children shall tread upon the borders as much as they will. Let us walk in +the cemetery of the leaves,--this is your true Greenwood Cemetery. + +THE SUGAR-MAPLE. + +But think not that the splendor of the year is over; for as one leaf does +not make a summer, neither does one falling leaf make an autumn. The +smallest Sugar-Maples in our streets make a great show as early as the +fifth of October, more than any other trees there. As I look up the Main +Street, they appear like painted screens standing before the houses; +yet many are green. But now, or generally by the seventeenth of October, +when almost all Red Maples, and some White Maples, are bare, the large +Sugar-Maples also are in their glory, glowing with yellow and red, and +show unexpectedly bright and delicate tints. They are remarkable for the +contrast they often afford of deep blushing red on one half and green on +the other. They become at length dense masses of rich yellow with a deep +scarlet blush, or more than blush, on the exposed surfaces. They are the +brightest trees now in the street. + +The large ones on our Common are particularly beautiful. A delicate, but +warmer than golden yellow is now the prevailing color, with scarlet +cheeks. Yet, standing on the east side of the Common just before sundown, +when the western light is transmitted through them, I see that their +yellow even, compared with the pale lemon yellow of an Elm close by, +amounts to a scarlet, without noticing the bright scarlet portions. +Generally, they are great regular oval masses of yellow and scarlet. All +the sunny warmth of the season, the Indian-summer, seems to be absorbed in +their leaves. The lowest and inmost leaves next the bole are, as usual, of +the most delicate yellow and green, like the complexion of young men +brought up in the house. There is an auction on the Common to-day, but its +red flag is hard to be discerned amid this blaze of color. + +Little did the fathers of the town anticipate this brilliant success, when +they caused to be imported from farther in the country some straight poles +with their tops cut off, which they called Sugar-Maples; and, as I +remember, after they were set out, a neighboring merchant's clerk, by way +of jest, planted beans about them. Those which were then jestingly called +bean-poles are to-day far the most beautiful objects noticeable in our +streets. They are worth all and more than they have cost,--though one of +the selectmen, while setting them out, took the cold which occasioned his +death,--if only because they have filled the open eyes of children with +their rich color unstintedly so many Octobers. We will not ask them to +yield us sugar in the spring, while they afford us so fair a prospect in +the autumn. Wealth in-doors may be the inheritance of few, but it is +equally distributed on the Common. All children alike can revel in this +golden harvest. + +Surely trees should be set in our streets with a view to their October +splendor; though I doubt whether this is ever considered by the "Tree +Society." Do you not think it will make some odds to these children that +they were brought up under the Maples? Hundreds of eyes are steadily +drinking in this color, and by these teachers even the truants are caught +and educated the moment they step abroad. Indeed, neither the truant nor +the studious is at present taught color in the schools. These are instead +of the bright colors in apothecaries' shops and city windows. It is a pity +that we have no more _Red_ Maples, and some Hickories, in our streets as +well. Our paint-box is very imperfectly filled. Instead of, or beside, +supplying such paint-boxes as we do, we might supply these natural colors +to the young. Where else will they study color under greater advantages? +What School of Design can vie with this? Think how much the eyes of +painters of all kinds, and of manufacturers of cloth and paper, and +paper-stainers, and countless others, are to be educated by these autumnal +colors. The stationer's envelopes may be of very various tints, yet, not +so various as those of the leaves of a single tree. If you want a +different shade or tint of a particular color, you have only to look +farther within or without the tree or the wood. These leaves are not many +dipped in one dye, as at the dye-house, but they are dyed in light of +infinitely various degrees of strength, and left to set and dry there. + +Shall the names of so many of our colors continue to be derived from those +of obscure foreign localities, as Naples yellow, Prussian blue, raw +Sienna, burnt Umber, Gamboge?--(surely the Tyrian purple must have faded +by this time),--or from comparatively trivial articles of commerce,-- +chocolate, lemon, coffee, cinnamon, claret?--(shall we compare our +Hickory to a lemon, or a lemon to a Hickory?)--or from ores and oxides +which few ever see? Shall we so often, when describing to our neighbors +the color of something we have seen, refer them, not to some natural +object in our neighborhood, but perchance to a bit of earth fetched from +the other side of the planet, which possibly they may find at the +apothecary's, but which probably neither they nor we ever saw? Have we not +an _earth_ under our feet,--ay, and a sky over our heads? Or is the +last _all_ ultramarine? What do we know of sapphire, amethyst, emerald, +ruby, amber, and the like,--most of us who take these names in vain? Leave +these precious words to cabinet-keepers, virtuosos, and maids-of-honor,-- +to the Nabobs, Begums, and Chobdars of Hindostan, or wherever else. I do +not see why, since America and her autumn woods have been discovered, our +leaves should not compete with the precious stones in giving names to +colors; and, indeed, I believe that in course of time the names of some of +our trees and shrubs, as well as flowers, will get into our popular +chromatic nomenclature. + +But of much more importance than a knowledge of the names and distinctions +of color is the joy and exhilaration which these colored leaves excite. +Already these brilliant trees throughout the street, without any more +variety, are at least equal to an annual festival and holiday, or a week +of such. These are cheap and innocent gala-days, celebrated by one and all +without the aid of committees or marshals, such a show as may safely be +licensed, not attracting gamblers or rum-sellers, not requiring any +special police to keep the peace. And poor indeed must be that New-England +village's October which has not the Maple in its streets. This October +festival costs no powder, nor ringing of bells, but every tree is a living +liberty-pole on which a thousand bright flags are waving. + +No wonder that we must have our annual Cattle-Show, and Fall Training, +and perhaps Cornwallis, our September Courts, and the like. Nature +herself holds her annual fair in October, not only in the streets, but +in every hollow and on every hill-side. When lately we looked into that +Red-Maple swamp all ablaze, where the trees were clothed in their vestures +of most dazzling tints, did it not suggest a thousand gypsies beneath,--a +race capable of wild delight,--or even the fabled fawns, satyrs, and +wood-nymphs come back to earth? Or was it only a congregation of wearied +wood-choppers, or of proprietors come to inspect their lots, that we +thought of? Or, earlier still, when we paddled on the river through that +fine-grained September air, did there not appear to be something new going +on under the sparkling surface of the stream, a shaking of props, at +least, so that we made haste in order to be up in time? Did not the rows +of yellowing Willows and Button-Bushes on each side seem like rows of +booths, under which, perhaps, some fluviatile egg-pop equally yellow was +effervescing? Did not all these suggest that man's spirits should rise as +high as Nature's,--should hang out their flag, and the routine of his life +be interrupted by an analogous expression of joy and hilarity? + +No annual training or muster of soldiery, no celebration with its scarfs +and banners, could import into the town a hundredth part of the annual +splendor of our October. We have only to set the trees, or let them stand, +and Nature will find the colored drapery,--flags of all her nations, some +of whose private signals hardly the botanist can read,--while we walk +under the triumphal arches of the Elms. Leave it to Nature to appoint the +days, whether the same as in neighboring States or not, and let the clergy +read her proclamations, if they can understand them. Behold what a +brilliant drapery is her Woodbine flag! What public-spirited merchant, +think you, has contributed this part of the show? There is no handsomer +shingling and paint than this vine, at present covering a whole side of +some houses. I do not believe that the Ivy _never sere_ is comparable to +it. No wonder it has been extensively introduced into London. Let us have +a good many Maples and Hickories and Scarlet Oaks, then, I say. Blaze +away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors +a village can display? A village is not complete unless it have these +trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town-clock. A +village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw +loose, an essential part is wanting. Let us have Willows for spring, Elms +for summer, Maples and Walnuts and Tupeloes for autumn, Evergreens for +winter, and Oaks for all seasons. What is a gallery in a house to a +gallery in the streets, which every market-man rides through, whether he +will or not? Of course, there is not a picture-gallery in the country +which would be worth so much to us as is the western view at sunset under +the Elms of our main street. They are the frame to a picture which is +daily painted behind them. An avenue of Elms as large as our largest and +three miles long would seem to lead to some admirable place, though only +C---- were at the end of it. + +A village needs these innocent stimulants of bright and cheering prospects +to keep off melancholy and superstition. Show me two villages, one +embowered in trees and blazing with all the glories of October, the other +a merely trivial and treeless waste, or with only a single tree or two for +suicides, and I shall be sure that in the latter will be found the most +starved and bigoted religionists and the most desperate drinkers. Every +washtub and milkcan and gravestone will be exposed. The inhabitants will +disappear abruptly behind their barns and houses, like desert Arabs amid +their rocks, and I shall look to see spears in their hands. They will be +ready to accept the most barren and forlorn doctrine,--as that the world +is speedily coming to an end, or has already got to it, or that they +themselves are turned wrong side outward. They will perchance crack their +dry joints at one another and call it a spiritual communication. + +But to confine ourselves to the Maples. What if we were to take half as +much pains in protecting them as we do in setting them out,--not stupidly +tie our horses to our dahlia-stems? + +What meant the fathers by establishing this _perfectly living_ institution +before the church,--this institution which needs no repairing nor +repainting, which is continually enlarged and repaired by its growth? +Surely they + + "Wrought in a sad sincerity; + Themselves from God they could not free; + They _planted_ better than they knew;-- + The conscious _trees_ to beauty grew." + +Verily these Maples are cheap preachers, permanently settled, which preach +their half-century, and century, ay, and century-and-a-half sermons, with +constantly increasing unction and influence, ministering to many +generations of men; and the least we can do is to supply them with +suitable colleagues as they grow infirm. + +THE SCARLET OAK. + +Belonging to a genus which is remarkable for the beautiful form of its +leaves, I suspect that some Scarlet-Oak leaves surpass those of all other +Oaks in the rich and wild beauty of their outlines. I judge from an +acquaintance with twelve species, and from drawings which I have seen of +many others. + +Stand under this tree and see how finely its leaves are cut against the +sky,--as it were, only a few sharp points extending from a midrib. They +look like double, treble, or quadruple crosses. They are far more ethereal +than the less deeply scolloped Oak-leaves. They have so little leafy +_terra firma_ that they appear melting away in the light, and scarcely +obstruct our view. The leaves of very young plants are, like those of +full-grown Oaks of other species, more entire, simple, and lumpish in +their outlines; but these, raised high on old trees, have solved the leafy +problem. Lifted higher and higher, and sublimated more and more, putting +off some earthiness and cultivating more intimacy with the light each +year, they have at length the least possible amount of earthy matter, and +the greatest spread and grasp of skyey influences. There they dance, arm +in arm with the light,--tripping it on fantastic points, fit partners in +those aerial halls. So intimately mingled are they with it, that, what +with their slenderness and their glossy surfaces, you can hardly tell at +last what in the dance is leaf and what is light. And when no zephyr +stirs, they are at most but a rich tracery to the forest-windows. + +I am again struck with their beauty, when, a month later, they thickly +strew the ground in the woods, piled one upon another under my feet. They +are then brown above, but purple beneath. With their narrow lobes and +their bold deep scollops reaching almost to the middle, they suggest that +the material must be cheap, or else there has been a lavish expense in +their creation, as if so much had been cut out. Or else they seem to us +the remnants of the stuff out of which leaves have been cut with a die. +Indeed, when they lie thus one upon another, they remind me of a pile of +scrap-tin. + +Or bring one home, and study it closely at your leisure, by the fireside. +It is a type, not from any Oxford font, not in the Basque nor the +arrow-headed character, not found on the Rosetta Stone, but destined to be +copied in sculpture one day, if they ever get to whittling stone here. +What a wild and pleasing outline, a combination of graceful curves and +angles! The eye rests with equal delight on what is not leaf and on what +is leaf,--on the broad, free, open sinuses, and on the long, sharp, +bristle-pointed lobes. A simple oval outline would include it all, if you +connected the points of the leaf; but how much richer is it than that, +with its half-dozen deep scollops, in which the eye and thought of the +beholder are embayed! If I were a drawing-master, I would set my pupils to +copying these leaves, that they might learn to draw firmly and gracefully. + +Regarded as water, it is like a pond with half a dozen broad rounded +promontories extending nearly to its middle, half from each side, while +its watery bays extend far inland, like sharp friths, at each of whose +heads several fine streams empty in,--almost a leafy archipelago. + +But it oftener suggests land, and, as Dionysius and Pliny compared +the form of the Morea to that of the leaf of the Oriental Plane-tree, +so this leaf reminds me of some fair wild island in the ocean, whose +extensive coast, alternate rounded bays with smooth strands, and +sharp-pointed rocky capes, mark it as fitted for the habitation of man, +and destined to become a centre of civilization at last. To the sailor's +eye, it is a much-indented shore. Is it not, in fact, a shore to the +aerial ocean, on which the windy surf beats? At sight of this leaf we are +all mariners,--if not vikings, buccaneers, and filibusters. Both our love +of repose and our spirit of adventure are addressed. In our most casual +glance, perchance, we think, that, if we succeed in doubling those sharp +capes, we shall find deep, smooth, and secure havens in the ample bays. +How different from the White-Oak leaf, with its rounded headlands, on +which no lighthouse need be placed! That is an England, with its long +civil history, that may be read. This is some still unsettled New-found +Island or Celebes. Shall we go and be rajahs there? + +By the twenty-sixth of October the large Scarlet Oaks are in their prime, +when other Oaks are usually withered. They have been kindling their fires +for a week past, and now generally burst into a blaze. This alone of _our_ +indigenous deciduous trees (excepting the Dogwood, of which I do not know +half a dozen, and they are but large bushes) is now in its glory. The two +Aspens and the Sugar-Maple come nearest to it in date, but they have lost +the greater part of their leaves. Of evergreens, only the Pitch-Pine is +still commonly bright. + +But it requires a particular alertness, if not devotion to these +phenomena, to appreciate the wide-spread, but late and unexpected glory of +the Scarlet Oaks. I do not speak here of the small trees and shrubs, which +are commonly observed, and which are now withered, but of the large trees. +Most go in and shut their doors, thinking that bleak and colorless +November has already come, when some of the most brilliant and memorable +colors are not yet lit. + +This very perfect and vigorous one, about forty feet high, standing in an +open pasture, which was quite glossy green on the twelfth, is now, the +twenty-sixth, completely changed to bright dark scarlet,--every leaf, +between you and the sun, as if it had been dipped into a scarlet dye. The +whole tree is much like a heart in form, as well as color. Was not this +worth waiting for? Little did you think, ten days ago, that that cold +green tree would assume such color as this. Its leaves are still firmly +attached, while those of other trees are falling around it. It seems to +say,--"I am the last to blush, but I blush deeper than any of ye. I bring +up the rear in my red coat. We Scarlet ones, alone of Oaks, have not given +up the fight." + +The sap is now, and even far into November, frequently flowing fast in +these trees, as in Maples in the spring; and apparently their bright +tints, now that most other Oaks are withered, are connected with this +phenomenon. They are full of life. It has a pleasantly astringent, +acorn-like taste, this strong Oak-wine, as I find on tapping them with my +knife. + +Looking across this woodland valley, a quarter of a mile wide, how rich +those Scarlet Oaks, embosomed in Pines, their bright red branches +intimately intermingled with them! They have their full effect there. The +Pine-boughs are the green calyx to their red petals. Or, as we go along a +road in the woods, the sun striking endwise through it, and lighting up +the red tents of the Oaks, which on each side are mingled with the liquid +green of the Pines, makes a very gorgeous scene. Indeed, without the +evergreens for contrast, the autumnal tints would lose much of their +effect. + +The Scarlet Oak asks a clear sky and the brightness of late October days. +These bring out its colors. If the sun goes into a cloud, they become +comparatively indistinct. As I sit on a cliff in the southwest part of our +town, the sun is now getting low, and the woods in Lincoln, south and east +of me, are lit up by its more level rays; and in the Scarlet Oaks, +scattered so equally over the forest, there is brought out a more +brilliant redness than I had believed was in them. Every tree of this +species which is visible in those directions, even to the horizon, now +stands out distinctly red. Some great ones lift their red backs high above +the woods, in the next town, like huge roses with a myriad of fine petals; +and some more slender ones, in a small grove of White Pines on Pine Hill +in the east, on the very verge of the horizon, alternating with the Pines +on the edge of the grove, and shouldering them with their red coats, look +like soldiers in red amid hunters in green. This time it is Lincoln green, +too. Till the sun got low, I did not believe that there were so many red +coats in the forest army. Theirs is an intense burning red, which would +lose some of its strength, methinks, with every step you might take toward +them; for the shade that lurks amid their foliage does not report itself +at this distance, and they are unanimously red. The focus of their +reflected color is in the atmosphere far on this side. Every such tree +becomes a nucleus of red, as it were, where, with the declining sun, that +color grows and glows. It is partly borrowed fire, gathering strength from +the sun on its way to your eye. It has only some comparatively dull red +leaves for a rallying-point, or kindling-stuff, to start it, and it +becomes an intense scarlet or red mist, or fire, which finds fuel for +itself in the very atmosphere. So vivacious is redness. The very rails +reflect a rosy light at this hour and season. You see a redder tree than +exists. + +If you wish to count the Scarlet Oaks, do it now. In a clear day stand +thus on a hill-top in the woods, when the sun is an hour high, and every +one within range of your vision, excepting in the west, will be revealed. +You might live to the age of Methuselah and never find a tithe of them, +otherwise. Yet sometimes even in a dark day I have thought them as bright +as I ever saw them. Looking westward, their colors are lost in a blaze of +light; but in other directions the whole forest is a flower-garden, in +which these late roses burn, alternating with green, while the so-called +"gardeners," walking here and there, perchance, beneath, with spade and +water-pot, see only a few little asters amid withered leaves. + +These are _my_ China-asters, _my_ late garden-flowers. It costs me nothing +for a gardener. The falling leaves, all over the forest, are protecting +the roots of my plants. Only look at what is to be seen, and you will have +garden enough, without deepening the soil in your yard. We have only to +elevate our view a little, to see the whole forest as a garden. The +blossoming of the Scarlet Oak,--the forest-flower, surpassing all in +splendor, (at least since the Maple)! I do not know but they interest me +more than the Maples, they are so widely and equally dispersed throughout +the forest; they are so hardy, a nobler tree on the whole;--our chief +November flower, abiding the approach of winter with us, imparting warmth +to early November prospects. It is remarkable that the latest bright color +that is general should be this deep, dark scarlet and red, the intensest +of colors. The ripest fruit of the year; like the cheek of a hard, glossy, +red apple, from the cold Isle of Orleans, which will not be mellow for +eating till next spring! When I rise to a hilltop, a thousand of these +great Oak roses, distributed on every side, as far as the horizon! I +admire them four or five miles off! This my unfailing prospect for a +fortnight past! This late forest-flower surpasses all that spring or +summer could do. Their colors were but rare and dainty specks +comparatively, (created for the near-sighted, who walk amid the humblest +herbs and underwoods,) and made no impression on a distant eye. Now it is +an extended forest or a mountain-side, through or along which we journey +from day to day, that bursts into bloom. Comparatively, our gardening is +on a petty scale,--the gardener still nursing a few asters amid dead +weeds, ignorant of the gigantic asters and roses, which, as it were, +overshadow him, and ask for none of his care. It is like a little red +paint ground on a saucer, and held up against the sunset sky. Why not take +more elevated and broader views, walk in the great garden, not skulk in a +little "debauched" nook of it? consider the beauty of the forest, and not +merely of a few impounded herbs? + +Let your walks now be a little more adventurous; ascend the hills. If, +about the last of October, you ascend any hill in the outskirts of our +town, and probably of yours, and look over the forest, you may see--well, +what I have endeavored to describe. All this you surely _will_ see, and +much more, if you are prepared to see it,--if you _look_ for it. +Otherwise, regular and universal as this phenomenon is, whether you stand +on the hill-top or in the hollow, you will think for threescore years and +ten that all the wood is, at this season, sere and brown. Objects are +concealed from our view, not so much because they are out of the course of +our visual ray as because we do not bring our minds and eyes to bear on +them; for there is no power to see in the eye itself, any more than in any +other jelly. We do not realize how far and widely, or how near and +narrowly, we are to look. The greater part of the phenomena of Nature are +for this reason concealed from us all our lives. The gardener sees only +the gardener's garden. Here, too, as in political economy, the supply +answers to the demand. Nature does not cast pearls before swine. There is +just as much beauty visible to us in the landscape as we are prepared to +appreciate,--not a grain more. The actual objects which one man will see +from a particular hill-top are just as different from those which another +will see as the beholders are different. The Scarlet Oak must, in a sense, +be in your eye when you go forth. We cannot see anything until we are +possessed with the idea of it, take it into our heads,--and then we can +hardly see anything else. In my botanical rambles, I find, that, first, +the idea, or image, of a plant occupies my thoughts, though it may seem +very foreign to this locality,--no nearer than Hudson's Bay,--and for some +weeks or months I go thinking of it, and expecting it, unconsciously, and +at length I surely see it. This is the history of my finding a score or +more of rare plants, which I could name. A man sees only what concerns +him. A botanist absorbed in the study of grasses does not distinguish the +grandest Pasture Oaks. He, as it were, tramples down Oaks unwittingly in +his walk, or at most sees only their shadows. I have found that it +required a different intention of the eye, in the same locality, to see +different plants, even when they were closely allied, as _Juncaceoe_ and +_Gramineoe_: when I was looking for the former, I did not see the latter +in the midst of them. How much more, then, it requires different +intentions of the eye and of the mind to attend to different departments +of knowledge! How differently the poet and the naturalist look at objects! + +Take a New-England selectman, and set him on the highest of our hills, and +tell him to look,--sharpening his sight to the utmost, and putting on the +glasses that suit him best, (ay, using a spy-glass, if he likes,)--and +make a full report. What, probably, will he _spy_?--what will he _select_ +to look at? Of course, he will see a Brocken spectre of himself. He will +see several meeting-houses, at least, and, perhaps, that somebody ought to +be assessed higher than he is, since he has so handsome a wood-lot. Now +take Julius Caesar, or Immanuel Swedenborg, or a Fegee-Islander, and set +him up there. Or suppose all together, and let them compare notes +afterward. Will it appear that they have enjoyed the same prospect? What +they will see will be as different as Rome was from Heaven or Hell, or the +last from the Fegee Islands. For aught we know, as strange a man as any of +these is always at our elbow. + +Why, it takes a sharp-shooter to bring down even such trivial game as +snipes and woodcocks; he must take very particular aim, and know what he +is aiming at. He would stand a very small chance, if he fired at random +into the sky, being told that snipes were flying there. And so is it with +him that shoots at beauty; though he wait till the sky falls, he will not +bag any, if he does not already know its seasons and haunts, and the color +of its wing,--if he has not dreamed of it, so that he can _anticipate_ it; +then, indeed, he flushes it at every step, shoots double and on the wing, +with both barrels, even in cornfields. The sportsman trains himself, +dresses and watches unweariedly, and loads and primes for his particular +game. He prays for it, and offers sacrifices, and so he gets it. After due +and long preparation, schooling his eye and hand, dreaming awake and +asleep, with gun and paddle and boat he goes out after meadow-hens, which +most of his townsmen never saw nor dreamed of, and paddles for miles +against a head-wind, and wades in water up to his knees, being out all day +without his dinner, and _therefore_ he gets them. He had them half-way +into his bag when he started, and has only to shove them down. The true +sportsman can shoot you almost any of his game from his windows: what else +has he windows or eyes for? It comes and perches at last on the barrel of +his gun; but the rest of the world never see it _with the feathers on_. +The geese fly exactly under his zenith, and honk when they get there, and +he will keep himself supplied by firing up his chimney; twenty musquash +have the refusal of each one of his traps before it is empty. If he lives, +and his game-spirit increases, heaven and earth shall fail him sooner than +game; and when he dies, he will go to more extensive, and, perchance, +happier hunting-grounds. The fisherman, too, dreams of fish, sees a +bobbing cork in his dreams, till he can almost catch them in his +sink-spout. I knew a girl who, being sent to pick huckleberries, picked +wild gooseberries by the quart, where no one else knew that there were +any, because she was accustomed to pick them up country where she came +from. The astronomer knows where to go star-gathering, and sees one +clearly in his mind before any have seen it with a glass. The hen +scratches and finds her food right under where she stands; but such is not +the way with the hawk. + +These bright leaves which I have mentioned are not the exception, but the +rule; for I believe that all leaves, even grasses and mosses, acquire +brighter colors just before their fall. When you come to observe +faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has, +sooner or later, its peculiar autumnal tint; and if you undertake to make +a complete list of the bright tints, it will be nearly as long as a +catalogue of the plants in your vicinity. + + + +WILD APPLES. + +(1862.) + + +THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. + +It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected +with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the _Rosaceae_, +which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the _Labiatae_ or +Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man +on the globe. + +It appears that apples made a part of the food of that unknown primitive +people whose traces have lately been found at the bottom of the Swiss +lakes, supposed to be older than the foundation of Rome, so old that they +had no metallic implements. An entire black and shrivelled Crab-Apple has +been recovered from their stores. + +Tacitus says of the ancient Germans, that they satisfied their hunger with +wild apples (_agrestia poma_) among other things. + +Niebuhr observes that "the words for a house, a field, a plough, +ploughing, wine, oil, milk, sheep, apples, and others relating to +agriculture and the gentler way of life, agree in Latin and Greek, while +the Latin words for all objects pertaining to war or the chase are utterly +alien from the Greek." Thus the apple-tree may be considered a symbol of +peace no less than the olive. + +The apple was early so important, and generally distributed, that its name +traced to its root in many languages signifies fruit in general. [Greek: +Maelon], in Greek, means an apple, also the fruit of other trees, also a +sheep and any cattle, and finally riches in general. + +The apple-tree has been celebrated by the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and +Scandinavians. Some have thought that the first human pair were tempted by +its fruit. Goddesses are fabled to have contended for it, dragons were set +to watch it, and heroes were employed to pluck it. + +The tree is mentioned in at least three places in the Old Testament, and +its fruit in two or three more. Solomon sings,--"As the apple-tree among +the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." And again,--"Stay +me with flagons, comfort me with apples." The noblest part of man's +noblest feature is named from this fruit, "the apple of the eye." + +The apple-tree is also mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Ulysses saw in +the glorious garden of Alcinous "pears and pomegranates, and apple-trees +bearing beautiful fruit" (kai maeleui aglaokarpoi). And according to +Homer, apples were among the fruits which Tantalus could not pluck, the +wind ever blowing their boughs away from him. Theophrastus knew and +described the apple-tree as a botanist. + +According to the Prose Edda, "Iduna keeps in a box the apples which the +gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of to become +young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in renovated +youth until Ragnaroek" (or the destruction of the gods). + +I learn from Loudon that "the ancient Welsh bards were rewarded for +excelling in song by the token of the apple-spray;" and "in the Highlands +of Scotland the apple-tree is the badge of the-clan Lamont." + +The apple-tree (_Pyrus malus_) belongs chiefly to the northern temperate +zone. Loudon says, that "it grows spontaneously in every part of Europe +except the frigid zone, and throughout Western Asia, China, and Japan." We +have also two or three varieties of the apple indigenous in North America. +The cultivated apple-tree was first introduced into this country by the +earliest settlers, and is thought to do as well or better here than +anywhere else. Probably some of the varieties which are now cultivated +were first introduced into Britain by the Romans. + +Pliny, adopting the distinction of Theophrastus, says,--"Of trees there +are some which are altogether wild (_sylvestres_), some more civilized +(_urbaniores_)." Theophrastus includes the apple among the last; and, +indeed, it is in this sense the most civilized of all trees. It is as +harmless as a dove, as beautiful as a rose, and as valuable as flocks and +herds. It has been longer cultivated than any other, and so is more +humanized; and who knows but, like the dog, it will at length be no longer +traceable to its wild original? It migrates with man, like the dog and +horse and cow: first, perchance, from Greece to Italy, thence to England, +thence to America; and our Western emigrant is still marching steadily +toward the setting sun with the seeds of the apple in his pocket, or +perhaps a few young trees strapped to his load. At least a million +apple-trees are thus set farther westward this year than any cultivated +ones grew last year. Consider how the Blossom-Week, like the Sabbath, is +thus annually spreading over the prairies; for when man migrates, he +carries with him not only his birds, quadrupeds, insects, vegetables, and +his very sward, but his orchard also. + +The leaves and tender twigs are an agreeable food to many domestic +animals, as the cow, horse, sheep, and goat; and the fruit is sought after +by the first, as well as by the hog. Thus there appears to have existed +a natural alliance between these animals and this tree from the first. +"The fruit of the Crab in the forests of France" is said to be "a great +resource for the wild-boar." + +Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and quadrupeds, +welcomed the apple-tree to these shores. The tent-caterpillar saddled her +eggs on the very first twig that was formed, and it has since shared her +affections with the wild cherry; and the canker-worm also in a measure +abandoned the elm to feed on it. As it grew apace, the bluebird, robin, +cherry-bird, king-bird, and many more, came with haste and built their +nests and warbled in its boughs, and so became orchard-birds, and +multiplied more than ever. It was an era in the history of their race. +The downy woodpecker found such a savory morsel under its bark, that he +perforated it in a ring quite round the tree, before he left it,--a thing +which he had never done before, to my knowledge. It did not take the +partridge long to find out how sweet its buds were, and every winter eve +she flew, and still flies, from the wood, to pluck them, much to the +farmer's sorrow. The rabbit, too, was not slow to learn the taste of its +twigs and bark; and when the fruit was ripe, the squirrel half-rolled, +half-carried it to his hole; and even the musquash crept up the bank from +the brook at evening, and greedily devoured it, until he had worn a path +in the grass there; and when it was frozen and thawed, the crow and the +jay were glad to taste it occasionally. The owl crept into the first +apple-tree that became hollow, and fairly hooted with delight, finding it +just the place for him; so, settling down into it, he has remained there +ever since. + +My theme being the Wild Apple, I will merely glance at some of the seasons +in the annual growth of the cultivated apple, and pass on to my special +province. + +The flowers of the apple are perhaps the most beautiful of any tree's, so +copious and so delicious to both sight and scent. The walker is frequently +tempted to turn and linger near some more than usually handsome one, whose +blossoms are two thirds expanded. How superior it is in these respects to +the pear, whose blossoms are neither colored nor fragrant! + +By the middle of July, green apples are so large as to remind us of +coddling, and of the autumn. The sward is commonly strewed with little +ones which fall still-born, as it were,--Nature thus thinning them for us. +The Roman writer Palladius said,--"If apples are inclined to fall before +their time, a stone placed in a split root will retain them." Some such +notion, still surviving, may account for some of the stones which we see +placed to be overgrown in the forks of trees. They have a saying in +Suffolk, England,-- + + "At Michaelmas time, or a little before, + Half an apple goes to the core." + +Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of August; but I think that +none of them are so good to eat as some to smell. One is worth more to +scent your handkerchief with than any perfume which they sell in the +shops. The fragrance of some fruits is not to be forgotten, along with +that of flowers. Some gnarly apple which I pick up in the road reminds me +by its fragrance of all the wealth of Pomona,--carrying me forward to +those days when they will be collected in golden and ruddy heaps in the +orchards and about the cider-mills. + +A week or two later, as you are going by orchards or gardens, especially +in the evenings, you pass through a little region possessed by the +fragrance of ripe apples, and thus enjoy them without price, and without +robbing anybody. + +There is thus about all natural products a certain volatile and ethereal +quality which represents their highest value, and which cannot be +vulgarized, or bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed the perfect +flavor of any fruit, and only the godlike among men begin to taste its +ambrosial qualities. For nectar and ambrosia are only those fine flavors +of every earthly fruit which our coarse palates fail to perceive,--just as +we occupy the heaven of the gods without knowing it. When I see a +particularly mean man carrying a load of fair and fragrant early apples to +market, I seem to see a contest going on between him and his horse, on the +one side, and the apples on the other, and, to my mind, the apples always +gain it. Pliny says that apples are the heaviest of all things, and that +the oxen begin to sweat at the mere sight of a load of them. Our driver +begins to lose his load the moment he tries to transport them to where +they do not belong, that is, to any but the most beautiful. Though he gets +out from time to time, and feels of them, and thinks they are all there, I +see the stream of their evanescent and celestial qualities going to heaven +from his cart, while the pulp and skin and core only are going to market. +They are not apples, but pomace. Are not these still Iduna's apples, the +taste of which keeps the gods forever young? and think you that they will +let Loki or Thjassi carry them off to Joetunheim, while they grow wrinkled +and gray? No, for Ragnaroek, or the destruction of the gods, is not yet. + +There is another thinning of the fruit, commonly near the end of August or +in September, when the ground is strewn with windfalls; and this happens +especially when high winds occur after rain. In some orchards you may see +fully three quarters of the whole crop on the ground, lying in a circular +form beneath the trees, yet hard and green,--or, if it is a hill-side, +rolled far down the hill. However, it is an ill wind that blows nobody any +good. All the country over, people are busy picking up the windfalls, and +this will make them cheap for early apple-pies. + +In October, the leaves falling, the apples are more distinct on the trees. +I saw one year in a neighboring town some trees fuller of fruit than I +remember to have ever seen before, small yellow apples hanging over the +road. The branches were gracefully drooping with their weight, like a +barberry-bush, so that the whole tree acquired a new character. Even the +topmost branches, instead of standing erect, spread and drooped in all +directions; and there were so many poles supporting the lower ones, that +they looked like pictures of banian-trees. As an old English manuscript +says, "The mo appelen the tree bereth, the more sche boweth to the folk." + +Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Let the most beautiful or the +swiftest have it. That should be the "going" price of apples. + +Between the fifth and twentieth of October I see the barrels lie under the +trees. And perhaps I talk with one who is selecting some choice barrels to +fulfil an order. He turns a specked one over many times before he leaves +it out. If I were to tell what is passing in my mind, I should say that +every one was specked which he had handled; for he rubs off all the bloom, +and those fugacious ethereal qualities leave it. Cool eveings prompt the +farmers to make haste, and at length I see only the ladders here and there +left leaning against the trees. + +It would be well, if we accepted these gifts with more joy and gratitude, +and did not think it enough simply to put a fresh load of compost about +the tree. Some old English customs are suggestive at least. I find them +described chiefly in Brand's "Popular Antiquities." It appears that "on +Christmas eve the farmers and their men in Devonshire take a large bowl of +cider, with a toast in it, and carrying it in state to the orchard, they +salute the apple-trees with much ceremony, in order to make them bear well +the next season." This salutation consists in "throwing some of the cider +about the roots of the tree, placing bits of the toast on the branches," +and then, "encircling one of the best bearing trees in the orchard, they +drink the following toast three several times:-- + + 'Here's to thee, old apple-tree, + Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow, + And whence thou mayst bear apples enow! + Hats-full! caps-full! + Bushel, bushel, sacks-full! + And my pockets full, too! Hurra!'" + +Also what was called "apple-howling" used to be practised in various +counties of England on New-Year's eve. A troop of boys visited the +different orchards, and, encircling the apple-trees, repeated the +following words:-- + + "Stand fast, root! bear well, top! + Pray God send us a good howling crop: + Every twig, apples big; + Every bow, apples enow!" + +"They then shout in chorus, one of the boys accompanying them on a cow's +horn. During this ceremony they rap the trees with their sticks." This is +called "wassailing" the trees, and is thought by some to be "a relic of +the heathen sacrifice to Pomona." + +Herrick sings,-- + + "Wassaile the trees that they may beare + You many a plum and many a peare; + For more or less fruits they will bring + As you so give them wassailing." + +Our poets have as yet a better right to sing of cider than of wine; but it +behooves them to sing better than English Phillips did, else they will do +no credit to their Muse. + +THE WILD APPLE. + +So much for the more civilized apple-trees (_urbaniores_, as Pliny +calls them). I love better to go through the old orchards of ungrafted +apple-trees, at whatever season of the year,--so irregularly planted: +sometimes two trees standing close together; and the rows so devious that +you would think that they not only had grown while the owner was sleeping, +but had been set out by him in a somnambulic state. The rows of grafted +fruit will never tempt me to wander amid them like these. But I now, alas, +speak rather from memory than from any recent experience, such ravages +have been made! + +Some soils, like a rocky tract called the Easterbrooks Country in my +neighborhood, are so suited to the apple, that it will grow faster in them +without any care, or if only the ground is broken up once a year, than it +will in many places with any amount of care. The owners of this tract +allow that the soil is excellent for fruit, but they say that it is so +rocky that they have not patience to plough it, and that, together with +the distance, is the reason why it is not cultivated. There are, or were +recently, extensive orchards there standing without order. Nay, they +spring up wild and bear well there in the midst of pines, birches, maples, +and oaks. I am often surprised to see rising amid these trees the rounded +tops of apple-trees glowing with red or yellow fruit; in harmony with the +autumnal tints of the forest. + +Going up the side of a cliff about the first of November, I saw a vigorous +young apple-tree, which, planted by birds or cows, had shot up amid the +rocks and open woods there, and had now much fruit on it, uninjured by +the frosts, when all cultivated apples were gathered. It was a rank +wild growth, with many green leaves on it still, and made an impression +of thorniness. The fruit was hard and green, but looked as if it would be +palatable in the winter. Some was dangling on the twigs, but more +half-buried in the wet leaves under the tree, or rolled far down the hill +amid the rocks. The owner knows nothing of it. The day was not observed +when it first blossomed, nor when it first bore fruit, unless by the +chickadee. There was no dancing on the green beneath it in its honor, and +now there is no hand to pluck its fruit,--which is only gnawed by +squirrels, as I perceive. It has done double duty,--not only borne this +crop, but each twig has grown a foot into the air. And this is _such_ +fruit! bigger than many berries, we must admit, and carried home will be +sound and palatable next spring. What care I for Iduna's apples so long as +I can get these? + +When I go by this shrub thus late and hardy, and see its dangling fruit, +I respect the tree, and I am grateful for Nature's bounty, even though +I cannot eat it. Here on this rugged and woody hill-side has grown an +apple-tree, not planted by man, no relic of a former orchard, but a +natural growth, like the pines and oaks. Most fruits which we prize and +use depend entirely on our care. Corn and grain, potatoes, peaches, +melons, etc., depend altogether on our planting; but the apple emulates +man's independence and enterprise. It is not simply carried, as I have +said, but, like him, to some extent, it has migrated to this New World, +and is even, here and there, making its way amid the aboriginal trees; +just as the ox and dog and horse sometimes run wild and maintain +themselves. + +Even the sourest and crabbedest apple, growing in the most unfavorable +position, suggests such thoughts as these, it is so noble a fruit. + +THE CRAB. + +Nevertheless, _our_ wild apple is wild only like myself, perchance, who +belong not to the aboriginal race here, but have strayed into the woods +from the cultivated stock. Wilder still, as I have said, there grows +elsewhere in this country a native and aboriginal Crab-Apple, _Malus +coronaria_, "whose nature has not yet been modified by cultivation." +It is found from Western New-York to Minnesota, and southward. Michaux +says that its ordinary height "is fifteen or eighteen feet, but it is +sometimes found twenty-five or thirty feet high," and that the large ones +"exactly resemble the common apple-tree." "The flowers are white mingled +with rose-color, and are collected in corymbs." They are remarkable for +their delicious odor. The fruit, according to him, is about an inch and a +half in diameter, and is intensely acid. Yet they make fine sweetmeats, +and also cider of them. He concludes, that "if, on being cultivated, it +does not yield new and palatable varieties, it will at least be celebrated +for the beauty of its flowers, and for the sweetness of its perfume." + +I never saw the Crab-Apple till May, 1861. I had heard of it through +Michaux, but more modern botanists, so far as I know, have not treated it +as of any peculiar importance. Thus it was a half-fabulous tree to me. I +contemplated a pilgrimage to the "Glades," a portion of Pennsylvania where +it was said to grow to perfection. I thought of sending to a nursery for +it, but doubted if they had it, or would distinguish it from European +varieties. At last I had occasion to go to Minnesota, and on entering +Michigan I began to notice from the cars a tree with handsome rose-colored +flowers. At first I thought it some variety of thorn; but it was not long +before the truth flashed on me, that this was my long-sought Crab-Apple. +It was the prevailing flowering shrub or tree to be seen from the cars at +that season of the year,--about the middle of May. But the cars never +stopped before one, and so I was launched on the bosom of the Mississippi +without having touched one, experiencing the fate of Tantalus. On arriving +at St. Anthony's Falls, I was sorry to be told that I was too far north +for the Crab-Apple. Nevertheless I succeeded in finding it about eight +miles west of the Falls; touched it and smelled it, and secured a +lingering corymb of flowers for my herbarium. This must have been near its +northern limit. + +HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS. + +But though these are indigenous, like the Indians, I doubt whether they +are any hardier than those backwoodsmen among the apple-trees, which, +though descended from cultivated stocks, plant themselves in distant +fields and forests, where the soil is favorable to them. I know of no +trees which have more difficulties to contend with, and which more +sturdily resist their foes. These are the ones whose story we have to +tell. It oftentimes reads thus:-- + +Near the beginning of May, we notice little thickets of apple-trees just +springing up in the pastures where cattle have been,--as the rocky ones of +our Easterbrooks Country, or the top of Nobscot Hill, in Sudbury. One or +two of these perhaps survive the drought and other accidents,--their very +birthplace defending them against the encroaching grass and some other +dangers, at first. + +In two years' time 't had thus + Reached the level of the rocks, +Admired the stretching world, + Nor feared the wandering flocks. + +But at this tender age + Its sufferings began: +There came a browsing ox + And cut it down a span. + +This time, perhaps, the ox does not notice it amid the grass; but the next +year, when it has grown more stout, he recognizes it for a fellow-emigrant +from the old country, the flavor of whose leaves and twigs he well knows; +and though at first he pauses to welcome it, and express his surprise, and +gets for answer, "The same cause that brought you here brought me," he +nevertheless browses it again, reflecting, it may be, that he has some +title to it. + +Thus cut down annually, it does not despair; but, putting forth two short +twigs for every one cut off, it spreads out low along the ground in the +hollows or between the rocks, growing more stout and scrubby, until it +forms, not a tree as yet, but a little pyramidal, stiff, twiggy mass, +almost as solid and impenetrable as a rock. Some of the densest and most +impenetrable clumps of bushes that I have ever seen, as well on account of +the closeness and stubbornness of their branches as of their thorns, have +been these wild-apple scrubs. They are more like the scrubby fir and black +spruce on which you stand, and sometimes walk, on the tops of mountains, +where cold is the demon they contend with, than anything else. No wonder +they are prompted to grow thorns at last, to defend themselves against +such foes. In their thorniness, however, there is no malice, only some +malic acid. + +The rocky pastures of the tract I have referred to,--for they maintain +their ground best in a rocky field,--are thickly sprinkled with these +little tufts, reminding you often of some rigid gray mosses or lichens, +and you see thousands of little trees just springing up between them, with +the seed still attached to them. + +Being regularly clipped all around each year by the cows, as a hedge with +shears, they are often of a perfect conical or pyramidal form, from one to +four feet high, and more or less sharp, as if trimmed by the gardener's +art. In the pastures on Nobscot Hill and its spurs, they make fine dark +shadows when the sun is low. They are also an excellent covert from hawks +for many small birds that roost and build in them. Whole flocks perch in +them at night, and I have seen three robins' nests in one which was six +feet in diameter. + +No doubt many of these are already old trees, if you reckon from the day +they were planted, but infants still when you consider their development +and the long life before them. I counted the annual rings of some which +were just one foot high, and as wide as high, and found that they were +about twelve years old, but quite sound and thrifty! They were so low that +they were unnoticed by the walker, while many of their contemporaries from +the nurseries were already bearing considerable crops. But what you gain +in time is perhaps in this case, too, lost in power,--that is, in the +vigor of the tree. This is their pyramidal state. + +The cows continue to browse them thus for twenty years or more, keeping +them down and compelling them to spread, until at last they are so broad +that they become their own fence, when some interior shoot, which their +foes cannot reach, darts upward with joy: for it has not forgotten its +high calling, and bears its own peculiar fruit in triumph. + +Such are the tactics by which it finally defeats its bovine foes. Now, if +you have watched the progress of a particular shrub, you will see that it +is no longer a simple pyramid or cone, but that out of its apex there +rises a sprig or two, growing more lustily perchance than an orchard-tree, +since the plant now devotes the whole of its repressed energy to these +upright parts. In a short time these become a small tree, an inverted +pyramid resting on the apex of the other, so that the whole has now the +form of a vast hour-glass. The spreading bottom, having served its +purpose, finally disappears, and the generous tree permits the now +harmless cows to come in and stand in its shade, and rub against and +redden its trunk, which has grown in spite of them, and even to taste a +part of its fruit, and so disperse the seed. + +Thus the cows create their own shade and food; and the tree, its +hour-glass being inverted, lives a second life, as it were. + +It is an important question with some nowadays, whether you should trim +young apple-trees as high as your nose or as high as your eyes. The ox +trims them up as high as he can reach, and that is about the right height, +I think. + +In spite of wandering kine, and other adverse circumstances, that despised +shrub, valued only by small birds as a covert and shelter from hawks, has +its blossom-week at last, and in coarse of time its harvest, sincere, +though small. + +By the end of some October, when its leaves have fallen, I frequently see +such a central sprig, whose progress I have watched, when I thought it had +forgotten its destiny, as I had, bearing its first crop of small green or +yellow or rosy fruit, which the cows cannot get at over the bushy and +thorny hedge which surrounds it, and I make haste to taste the new and +undescribed variety. We have all heard of the numerous varieties of fruit +invented by Van Mons and Knight. This is the system of Van Cow, and she +has invented far more and more memorable varieties than both of them. + +Through what hardships it may attain to bear a sweet fruit! Though +somewhat small, it may prove equal, if not superior, in flavor to that +which has grown in a garden,--will perchance be all the sweeter and more +palatable for the very difficulties it has had to contend with. Who knows +but this chance wild fruit, planted by a cow or a bird on some remote and +rocky hillside, where it is as yet unobserved by man, may be the choicest +of all its kind, and foreign potentates shall hear of it, and royal +societies seek to propagate it, though the virtues of the perhaps truly +crabbed owner of the soil may never be heard of,--at least, beyond the +limits of his village? It was thus the Porter and the Baldwin grew. + +Every wild-apple shrub excites our expectation thus, somewhat as every +wild child. It is, perhaps, a prince in disguise. What a lesson to man! So +are human beings, referred to the highest standard, the celestial fruit +which they suggest and aspire to bear, browsed on by fate; and only the +most persistent and strongest genius defends itself and prevails, sends a +tender scion upward at last, and drops its perfect fruit on the ungrateful +earth. Poets and philosophers and statesmen thus spring up in the country +pastures, and outlast the hosts of unoriginal men. + +Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the golden +apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred-headed dragon +which never sleeps, so that it is an Herculean labor to pluck them. + +This is one, and the most remarkable way, in which the wild apple is +propagated; but commonly it springs up at wide intervals in woods and +swamps, and by the sides of roads, as the soil may suit it, and grows with +comparative rapidity. Those which grow in dense woods are very tall and +slender. I frequently pluck from these trees a perfectly mild and tamed +fruit. As Palladius says, "_Et injussu consternitur ubere mali_": And the +ground is strewn with the fruit of an unbidden apple-tree. + +It is an old notion, that, if these wild trees do not bear a valuable +fruit of their own, they are the best stocks by which to transmit to +posterity the most highly prized qualities of others. However, I am not in +search of stocks, but the wild fruit itself, whose fierce gust has +suffered no "inteneration." It is not my + + "highest plot + To plant the Bergamot." + +THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR. + +The time for wild apples is the last of October and the first of November. +They then get to be palatable, for they ripen late, and they are still +perhaps as beautiful as ever. I make a great account of these fruits, +which the farmers do not think it worth the while to gather,--wild flavors +of the Muse, vivacious and inspiriting. The farmer thinks that he has +better in his barrels, but he is mistaken, unless he has a walker's +appetite and imagination, neither of which can he have. + +Such as grow quite wild, and are left out till the first of November, I +presume that the owner does not mean to gather. They belong to children as +wild as themselves,--to certain active boys that I know,--to the wild-eyed +woman of the fields, to whom nothing comes amiss, who gleans after all the +world,--and, moreover, to us walkers. We have met with them, and they are +ours. These rights, long enough insisted upon, have come to be an +institution in some old countries, where they have learned how to live. I +hear that "the custom of grippling, which may be called apple-gleaning, +is, or was formerly, practised in Herefordshire. It consists in leaving a +few apples, which are called the gripples, on every tree, after the +general gathering, for the boys, who go with climbing-poles and bags to +collect them." + +As for those I speak of, I pluck them as a wild fruit, native to this +quarter of the earth,--fruit of old trees that have been dying ever since +I was a boy and are not yet dead, frequented only by the woodpecker and +the squirrel, deserted now by the owner, who has not faith enough to look +under their boughs. From the appearance of the tree-top, at a little +distance, you would expect nothing but lichens to drop from it, but your +faith is rewarded by finding the ground strewn with spirited fruit,--some +of it, perhaps, collected at squirrel-holes, with the marks of their teeth +by which they carried them,--some containing a cricket or two silently +feeding within, and some, especially in damp days, a shelless snail. The +very sticks and stones lodged in the tree-top might have convinced you of +the savoriness of the fruit which has been so eagerly sought after in past +years. + +I have seen no account of these among the "Fruits and Fruit-Trees of +America," though they are more memorable to my taste than the grafted +kinds; more racy and wild American flavors do they possess, when October +and November, when December and January, and perhaps February and March +even, have assuaged them somewhat. An old farmer in my neighborhood, who +always selects the right word, says that "they have a kind of bow-arrow +tang." + +Apples for grafting appear to have been selected commonly, not so much for +their spirited flavor, as for their mildness, their size, and bearing +qualities,--not so much for their beauty, as for their fairness and +soundness. Indeed, I have no faith in the selected lists of pomological +gentlemen. Their "Favorites" and "None-suches" and "Seek-no-farthers," +when I have fruited them, commonly turn out very tame and forgetable. +They are eaten with comparatively little zest, and have no real _tang_ nor +_smack_ to them. + +What if some of these wildings are acrid and puckery, genuine _verjuice_, +do they not still belong to the _Pomaceae_, which are uniformly innocent +and kind to our race? I still begrudge them to the cider-mill. Perhaps +they are not fairly ripe yet. + +No wonder that these small and high-colored apples are thought to make the +best cider. Loudon quotes from the "Herefordshire Report," that "apples of +a small size are always, if equal in quality, to be preferred to those of +a larger size, in order that the rind and kernel may bear the greatest +proportion to the pulp, which affords the weakest and most watery juice." +And he says, that, "to prove this, Dr. Symonds, of Hereford, about the +year 1800, made one hogshead of cider entirely from the rinds and cores of +apples, and another from the pulp only, when the first was found of +extraordinary strength and flavor, while the latter was sweet and +insipid." + +Evelyn says that the "Red-strake" was the favorite cider-apple in his day; +and he quotes one Dr. Newburg as saying, "In Jersey 't is a general +observation, as I hear, that the more of red any apple has in its rind, +the more proper it is for this use. Pale-faced apples they exclude as much +as may be from their cider-vat." This opinion still prevails. + +All apples are good in November. Those which the farmer leaves out as +unsalable, and unpalatable to those who frequent the markets, are choicest +fruit to the walker. But it is remarkable that the wild apple, which I +praise as so spirited and racy when eaten in the fields or woods, being +brought into the house, has frequently a harsh and crabbed taste. +The Saunterer's Apple not even the saunterer can eat in the house. +The palate rejects it there, as it does haws and acorns, and demands a +tamed one; for there you miss the November air, which is the sauce it is +to be eaten with. Accordingly, when Tityrus, seeing the lengthening +shadows, invites Meliboeus to go home and pass the night with him, he +promises him _mild_ apples and soft chestnuts,--_mitia poma, castaneae +molles_. I frequently pluck wild apples of so rich and spicy a flavor that +I wonder all orchardists do not get a scion from that tree, and I fail not +to bring home my pockets full. But perchance, when I take one out of my +desk and taste it in my chamber, I find it unexpectedly crude,--sour +enough to set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream. + +These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have +absorbed the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly +_seasoned,_ and they _pierce_ and _sting_ and _permeate_ us with their +spirit. They must be eaten in _season_, accordingly,--that is, +out-of-doors. + +To appreciate the wild and sharp flavors of these October fruits, it is +necessary that you be breathing the sharp October or November air. The +out-door air and exercise which the walker gets give a different tone to +his palate, and he craves a fruit which the sedentary would call harsh and +crabbed. They must be eaten in the fields, when your system is all aglow +with exercise, when the frosty weather nips your fingers, the wind rattles +the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves, and the jay is heard +screaming around. What is sour in the house a bracing walk makes sweet. +Some of these apples might be labelled, "To be eaten in the wind." + +Of course no flavors are thrown away; they are intended for the taste that +is up to them. Some apples have two distinct flavors, and perhaps one-half +of them must be eaten in the house, the other out-doors. One Peter Whitney +wrote from Northborough in 1782, for the Proceedings of the Boston +Academy, describing an apple-tree in that town "producing fruit of +opposite qualities, part of the same apple being frequently sour and the +other sweet;" also some all sour, and others all sweet, and this diversity +on all parts of the tree. + +There is a wild apple on Nawshawtuck Hill in my town which has to me a +peculiarly pleasant bitter tang, not perceived till it is three-quarters +tasted. It remains on the tongue. As you eat it, it smells exactly like a +squash-bug. It is a sort of triumph to eat and relish it. + +I hear that the fruit of a kind of plum-tree in Provence is "called +_Prunes sibarelles_, because it is impossible to whistle after having +eaten them, from their sourness." But perhaps they were only eaten in the +house and in summer, and if tried out-of-doors in a stinging atmosphere, +who knows but you could whistle an octave higher and clearer? + +In the fields only are the sours and bitters of Nature appreciated; just +as the wood-chopper eats his meal in a sunny glade, in the middle of a +winter day, with content, basks in a sunny ray there and dreams of summer +in a degree of cold which, experienced in a chamber, would make a student +miserable. They who are at work abroad are not cold, but rather it is they +who sit shivering in houses. As with temperatures, so with flavors; as, +with cold and heat, so with sour and sweet. This natural raciness, the +sours and bitters which the diseased palate refuses, are the true +condiments. + +Let your condiments be in the condition of your senses. To appreciate the +flavor of these wild apples requires vigorous and healthy senses, +_papillae_ firm and erect on the tongue and palate, not easily flattened +and tamed. + +From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be +reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the civilized +man rejects. The former has the palate of an out-door man. It takes a +savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit. + +What a healthy out-of-door appetite it takes to relish the apple of life, +the apple of the world, then! + + "Nor is it every apple I desire, + Nor that which pleases every palate best; + 'T is not the lasting Deuxan I require, + Nor yet the red-cheeked Greening I request, + Nor that which first beshrewed the name of wife, + Nor that whose beauty caused the golden strife: + No, no I bring me an apple from the tree of life." + +So there is one _thought_ for the field, another for the house. I would +have my thoughts, like wild apples, to be food for walkers, and will not +warrant them to be palatable, if tasted in the house. + +THEIR BEAUTY. + +Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and crabbed +and rusty to look at. The gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even +to the eye. You will discover some evening redness dashed or sprinkled on +some protuberance or in some cavity. It is rare that the summer lets an +apple go without streaking or spotting it on some part of its sphere. It +will have some red stains, commemorating the mornings and evenings it has +witnessed; some dark and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and +foggy, mildewy days that have passed over it; and a spacious field of +green reflecting the general face of Nature,--green even as the fields; or +a yellow ground, which implies a milder flavor,--yellow as the harvest, or +russet as the hills. + +Apples, these I mean, unspeakably fair,--apples not of Discord, but of +Concord! Yet not so rare but that the homeliest may have a share. Painted +by the frosts, some a uniform clear bright yellow, or red, or crimson, as +if their spheres had regularly revolved, and enjoyed the influence of the +sun on all sides alike,--some with the faintest pink blush imaginable,-- +some brindled with deep red streaks like a cow, or with hundreds of fine +blood-red rays running regularly from the stem-dimple to the blossom-end, +like meridional lines, on a straw-colored ground,--some touched with a +greenish rust, like a fine lichen, here and there, with crimson blotches +or eyes more or less confluent and fiery when wet,--and others gnarly, and +freckled or peppered all over on the stem side with fine crimson spots on +a white ground, as if accidentally sprinkled from the brush of Him who +paints the autumn leaves. Others, again, are sometimes red inside, +perfused with a beautiful blush, fairy food, too beautiful to eat,--apple +of the Hesperides, apple of the evening sky! But like shells and pebbles +on the sea-shore, they must be seen as they sparkle amid the withering +leaves in some dell in the woods, in the autumnal air, or as they lie in +the wet grass, and not when they have wilted and faded in the house. + +THE NAMING OF THEM. + +It would be a pleasant pastime to find suitable names for the hundred +varieties which go to a single heap at the cider-mill. Would it not tax a +man's invention,--no one to be named after a man, and all in the _lingua +vernacula_? Who shall stand godfather at the christening of the wild +apples? It would exhaust the Latin and Greek languages, if they were used, +and make the _lingua vernacula_ flag. We should have to call in the +sunrise and the sunset, the rainbow and the autumn woods and the wild +flowers, and the woodpecker and the purple finch and the squirrel and the +jay and the butterfly, the November traveller and the truant boy, to our +aid. + +In 1836 there were in the garden of the London Horticultural Society more +than fourteen hundred distinct sorts. But here are species which they have +not in their catalogue, not to mention the varieties which our Crab might +yield to cultivation. + +Let us enumerate a few of these. I find myself compelled, after all, to +give the Latin names of some for the benefit of those who live where +English is not spoken,--for they are likely to have a world-wide +reputation. + +There is, first of all, the Wood-Apple (_Malus sylvatica_); the Blue-Jay +Apple; the Apple which grows in Dells in the Woods, (_sylvestrivallis_,) +also in Hollows in Pastures (_campestrivallis_); the Apple that +grows in an old Cellar-Hole (_Malus cellaris_); the Meadow-Apple; +the Partridge-Apple; the Truant's Apple, (_Cessatoris_,) which no boy +will ever go by without knocking off some, however _late_ it may be; +the Saunterer's Apple,--you must lose yourself before you can find +the way to that; the Beauty of the Air (_Decus Aeris_); December-Eating; +the Frozen-Thawed _(gelato-soluta),_ good only in that state; the Concord +Apple, possibly the same with the _Musketaquidensis_; the Assabet Apple; +the Brindled Apple; Wine of New England; the Chickaree Apple; the Green +Apple _(Malus viridis);_--this has many synonymes; in an imperfect +state, it is the _Cholera morbifera aut dysenterifera, puerulis +dilectissima_;--the Apple which Atalanta stopped to pick up; the +Hedge-Apple _(Malus Sepium_); the Slug-Apple _(limacea)_; the +Railroad-Apple, which perhaps came from a core thrown out of the cars; +the Apple whose Fruit we tasted in our Youth; our Particular Apple, +not to be found in any catalogue,--_Pedestrium Solatium_; also the Apple +where hangs the Forgotten Scythe; Iduna's Apples, and the Apples which +Loki found in the Wood; and a great many more I have on my list, too +numerous to mention,--all of them good. As Bodaeus exclaims, referring to +the cultivated kinds, and adapting Virgil to his case, so I, adapting +Bodaeus,-- + + "Not if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, + An iron voice, could I describe all the forms + And reckon up all the names of these _wild apples_." + +THE LAST GLEANING. + +By the middle of November the wild apples have lost some of their +brilliancy, and have chiefly fallen. A great part are decayed on the +ground, and the sound ones are more palatable than before. The note of +the chickadee sounds now more distinct, as you wander amid the old trees, +and the autumnal dandelion is half-closed and tearful. But still, if you +are a skilful gleaner, you may get many a pocket-full even of grafted +fruit, long after apples are supposed to be gone out-of-doors. I know +a Blue-Pearmain tree, growing within the edge of a swamp, almost as good +as wild. You would not suppose that there was any fruit left there, +on the first survey, but you must look according to system. Those which +lie exposed are quite brown and rotten now, or perchance a few still show +one blooming cheek here and there amid the wet leaves. Nevertheless, +with experienced eyes, I explore amid the bare alders and the +huckleberry-bushes and the withered sedge, and in the crevices of the +rocks, which are full of leaves, and pry under the fallen and decaying +ferns, which, with apple and alder leaves, thickly strew the ground. For I +know that they lie concealed, fallen into hollows long since and covered +up by the leaves of the tree itself,--a proper kind of packing. From these +lurking-places, anywhere within the circumference of the tree, I draw +forth the fruit, all wet and glossy, maybe nibbled by rabbits and hollowed +out by crickets and perhaps with a leaf or two cemented to it (as Curzon +an old manuscript from a monastery's mouldy cellar), but still with a rich +bloom on it, and at least as ripe and well kept, if not better than those +in barrels, more crisp and lively than they. If these resources fail to +yield anything, I have learned to look between the bases of the suckers +which spring thickly from some horizontal limb, for now and then one +lodges there, or in the very midst of an alder-clump, where they are +covered by leaves, safe from cows which may have smelled them out. If I am +sharp-set, for I do not refuse the Blue-Pearmain, I fill my pockets on +each side; and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, being perhaps four +or five miles from home, I eat one first from this side, and then from +that, to keep my balance. + +I learn from Topsell's Gesner, whose authority appears to be Albertus, +that the following is the way in which the hedgehog collects and carries +home his apples. He says,--"His meat is apples, worms, or grapes: when he +findeth apples or grapes on the earth, he rolleth himself upon them, until +he have filled all his prickles, and then carrieth them home to his den, +never bearing above one in his mouth; and if it fortune that one of them +fall off by the way, he likewise shaketh off all the residue, and +walloweth upon them afresh, until they be all settled upon his back again. +So, forth he goeth, making a noise like a cart-wheel; and if he have any +young ones in his nest, they pull off his load wherewithal he is loaded, +eating thereof what they please, and laying up the residue for the time to +come." + +THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE. + +Toward the end of November, though some of the sound ones are yet more +mellow and perhaps more edible, they have generally, like the leaves, lost +their beauty, and are beginning to freeze. It is finger-cold, and prudent +farmers get in their barrelled apples, and bring you the apples and cider +which they have engaged; for it is time to put them into the cellar. +Perhaps a few on the ground show their red cheeks above the early snow, +and occasionally some even preserve their color and soundness under the +snow throughout the winter. But generally at the beginning of the winter +they freeze hard, and soon, though undecayed, acquire the color of a baked +apple. + +Before the end of December, generally, they experience their first +thawing. Those which a month ago were sour, crabbed, and quite unpalatable +to the civilized taste, such at least as were frozen while sound, let a +warmer sun come to thaw them, for they are extremely sensitive to its +rays, are found to be filled with a rich, sweet cider, better than any +bottled cider that I know of, and with which I am better acquainted than +with wine. All apples are good in this state, and your jaws are the +cider-press. Others, which have more substance, are a sweet and luscious +food,--in my opinion of more worth than the pine-apples which are imported +from the West Indies. Those which lately even I tasted only to repent of +it,--for I am semi-civilized,--which the farmer willingly left on the +tree, I am now glad to find have the property of hanging on like the +leaves of the young oaks. It is a way to keep cider sweet without boiling. +Let the frost come to freeze them first, solid as stones, and then the +rain or a warm winter day to thaw them, and they will seem to have +borrowed a flavor from heaven through the medium of the air in which they +hang. Or perchance you find, when you get home, that those which rattled +in your pocket have thawed, and the ice is turned to cider. But after the +third or fourth freezing and thawing they will not be found so good. + +What are the imported half-ripe fruits of the torrid South, to this +fruit matured by the cold of the frigid North? These are those crabbed +apples with which I cheated my companion, and kept a smooth face that +I might tempt him to eat. Now we both greedily fill our pockets with +them,--bending to drink the cup and save our lappets from the overflowing +juice,--and grow more social with their wine. Was there one that hung so +high and sheltered by the tangled branches that our sticks could not +dislodge it? + +It is a fruit never carried to market, that I am aware of,--quite distinct +from the apple of the markets, as from dried apple and cider,--and it is +not every winter that produces it in perfection. + + * * * * * + +The era of the Wild Apple will soon be past. It is a fruit which will +probably become extinct in New England. You may still wander through old +orchards of native fruit of great extent, which for the most part went to +the cider-mill, now all gone to decay. I have heard of an orchard in a +distant town, on the side of a hill, where the apples rolled down and lay +four feet deep against a wall on the lower side, and this the owner cut +down for fear they should be made into cider. Since the temperance reform +and the general introduction of grafted fruit, no native apple-trees, such +as I see everywhere in deserted pastures, and where the woods have grown +up around them, are set out. I fear that he who walks over these fields a +century hence will not know the pleasure of knocking off wild apples. Ah, +poor man, there are many pleasures which he will not know! Notwithstanding +the prevalence of the Baldwin and the Porter, I doubt if so extensive +orchards are set out to-day in my town as there were a century ago, when +those vast straggling cider-orchards were planted, when men both ate and +drank apples, when the pomace-heap was the only nursery, and trees cost +nothing but the trouble of setting them out. Men could afford then to +stick a tree by every wall-side and let it take its chance. I see nobody +planting trees to-day in such out-of-the-way places, along the lonely +roads and lanes, and at the bottom of dells in the wood. Now that they +have grafted trees, and pay a price for them, they collect them into a +plat by their houses, and fence them in,--and the end of it all will be +that we shall be compelled to look for our apples in a barrel. + +This is "The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. + +"Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land! +Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?... + +"That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that +which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten; and that which the +canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. + +"Awake, ye drunkards, and weep! and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because +of the new wine! for it is cut off from your mouth. + +"For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose +teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great +lion. + +"He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean +bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.... + +"Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen! howl, O ye vine-dressers!... + +"The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth; the pomegranate-tree, +the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, +are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men." + + + +NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT. + +Chancing to take a memorable walk by moonlight some years ago, I resolved +to take more such walks, and make acquaintance with another side of +nature: I have done so. + +According to Pliny, there is a stone in Arabia called Selenites, "wherein +is a white, which increases and decreases with the moon." My journal for +the last year or two, has been _selenitic_ in this sense. + +Is not the midnight like Central Africa to most of us? Are we not tempted +to explore it,--to penetrate to the shores of its lake Tchad, and discover +the source of its Nile, perchance the Mountains of the Moon? Who knows +what fertility and beauty, moral and natural, are there to be found? In +the Mountains of the Moon, in the Central Africa of the night, there is +where all Niles have their hidden heads. The expeditions up the Nile as +yet extend but to the Cataracts, or perchance to the mouth of the White +Nile; but it is the Black Nile that concerns us. + +I shall be a benefactor if I conquer some realms from the night, if I +report to the gazettes anything transpiring about us at that season worthy +of their attention,--if I can show men that there is some beauty awake +while they are asleep,--if I add to the domains of poetry. + +Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day. I soon discovered +that I was acquainted only with its complexion, and as for the moon, I had +seen her only as it were through a crevice in a shutter, occasionally. Why +not walk a little way in her light? + +Suppose you attend to the suggestions which the moon makes for one month, +commonly in vain, will it not be very different from anything in +literature or religion? But why not study this Sanscrit? What if one moon +has come and gone with its world of poetry, its weird teachings, its +oracular suggestions,--so divine a creature freighted with hints for me, +and I have not used her? One moon gone by unnoticed? + +I think it was Dr. Chalmers who said, criticising Coleridge, that for his +part he wanted ideas which he could see all round, and not such as he must +look at away up in the heavens. Such a man, one would say, would never +look at the moon, because she never turns her other side to us. The light +which comes from ideas which have their orbit as distant from the earth, +and which is no less cheering and enlightening to the benighted traveller +than that of the moon and stars, is naturally reproached or nicknamed as +moonshine by such. They are moonshine, are they? Well, then do your +night-travelling when there is no moon to light you; but I will be +thankful for the light that reaches me from the star of least magnitude. +Stars are lesser or greater only as they appear to us so. I will be +thankful that I see so much as one side of a celestial idea,--one side of +the rainbow,--and the sunset sky. + +Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities very +well, and despised them; as owls might talk of sunshine. None of your +sunshine,--but this word commonly means merely something which they do not +understand,--which they are abed and asleep to, however much it may be +worth their while to be up and awake to it. + +It must be allowed that the light of the moon, sufficient though it is for +the pensive walker, and not disproportionate to the inner light we have, +is very inferior in quality and intensity to that of the sun. But the moon +is not to be judged alone by the quantity of light she sends to us, but +also by her influence on the earth and its inhabitants. "The moon +gravitates toward the earth, and the earth reciprocally toward the moon." +The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his thought +which is to be referred to lunar influence. I will endeavor to separate +the tide in my thoughts from the current distractions of the day. I would +warn my hearers that they must not try my thoughts by a daylight standard, +but endeavor to realize that I speak out of the night. All depends on your +point of view. In Drake's "Collection of Voyages," Wafer says of some +Albinoes among the Indians of Darien, "They are quite white, but their +whiteness is like that of a horse, quite different from the fair or pale +European, as they have not the least tincture of a blush or sanguine +complexion. * * * Their eyebrows are milk-white, as is likewise the hair +of their heads, which is very fine. * * * They seldom go abroad in the +daytime, the sun being disagreeable to them, and causing their eyes, which +are weak and poring, to water, especially if it shines towards them, yet +they see very well by moonlight, from which we call them moon-eyed." + +Neither in our thoughts in these moonlight walks, methinks, is there "the +least tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion," but we are +intellectually and morally Albinoes,--children of Endymion,--such is the +effect of conversing much with the moon. + +I complain of Arctic voyagers that, they do not enough remind us of the +constant peculiar dreariness of the scenery, and the perpetual twilight of +the Arctic night. So he whose theme is moonlight, though he may find it +difficult, must, as it were, illustrate it with the light of the moon +alone. + +Many men walk by day; few walk by night. It is a very different season. +Take a July night, for instance. About ten o'clock,--when man is asleep, +and day fairly forgotten,--the beauty of moonlight is seen over lonely +pastures where cattle are silently feeding. On all sides novelties present +themselves. Instead of the sun there are the moon and stars, instead of +the wood-thrush there is the whip-poor-will,--instead of butterflies in +the meadows, fire-flies, winged sparks of fire! who would have believed +it? What kind of cool deliberate life dwells in those dewy abodes +associated with a spark of fire? So man has fire in his eyes, or blood, or +brain. Instead of singing birds, the half-throttled note of a cuckoo +flying over, the croaking of frogs, and the intenser dream of crickets. +But above all, the wonderful trump of the bull-frog, ringing from Maine to +Georgia. The potato-vines stand upright, the corn grows apace, the bushes +loom, the grain-fields are boundless. On our open river terraces once +cultivated by the Indian, they appear to occupy the ground like an army,-- +their heads nodding in the breeze. + +Small trees and shrubs are seen in the midst, overwhelmed as by an +inundation. The shadows of rocks and trees, and shrubs and hills, are more +conspicuous than the objects themselves. The slightest irregularities in +the ground are revealed by the shadows, and what the feet find +comparatively smooth, appears rough and diversified in consequence. For +the same reason the whole landscape is more variegated and picturesque +than by day. The smallest recesses in the rocks are dim and cavernous; the +ferns in the wood appear of tropical size. The sweet fern and indigo in +overgrown wood-paths wet you with dew up to your middle. The leaves of the +shrub-oak are shining as if a liquid were flowing over them. The pools +seen through the trees are as full of light as the sky. "The light of the +day takes refuge in their bosoms," as the Purana says of the ocean. All +white objects are more remarkable than by day. A distant cliff looks like +a phosphorescent space on a hillside. The woods are heavy and dark. Nature +slumbers. You see the moonlight reflected from particular stumps in the +recesses of the forest, as if she selected what to shine on. These small +fractions of her light remind one of the plant called moon-seed,--as if +the moon were sowing it in such places. + +In the night the eyes are partly closed or retire into the head. Other +senses take the lead. The walker is guided as well by the sense of smell. +Every plant and field and forest emits its odor now, swamp-pink in the +meadow and tansy in the road; and there is the peculiar dry scent of corn +which has begun to show its tassels. The senses both of hearing and +smelling are more alert. We hear the tinkling of rills which we never +detected before. From time to time, high up on the sides of hills, you +pass through a stratum of warm air. A blast which has come up from the +sultry plains of noon. It tells of the day, of sunny noon-tide hours and +banks, of the laborer wiping his brow and the bee humming amid flowers. It +is an air in which work has been done,--which men have breathed. It +circulates about from wood-side to hill-side like a dog that has lost its +master, now that the sun is gone. The rocks retain all night the warmth of +the sun which they have absorbed. And so does the sand. If you dig a few +inches into it you find a warm bed. You lie on your back on a rock in a +pasture on the top of some bare hill at midnight, and speculate on the +height of the starry canopy. The stars are the jewels of the night, and +perchance surpass anything which day has to show. A companion with whom I +was sailing one very windy but bright moonlight night, when the stars were +few and faint, thought that a man could get along with _them_,--though he +was considerably reduced in his circumstances,--that they were a kind of +bread and cheese that never failed. + +No wonder that there have been astrologers, that some have conceived that +they were personally related to particular stars. Dubartas, as translated +by Sylvester, says he'll + + "not believe that the great architect + With all these fires the heavenly arches decked + Only for show, and with these glistering shields, + T' awake poor shepherds, watching in the fields." + He'll "not believe that the least flower which pranks + Our garden borders, or our common banks, + And the least stone, that in her warming lap + Our mother earth doth covetously wrap, + Hath some peculiar virtue of its own, + And that the glorious stars of heav'n have none." + +And Sir Walter Raleigh well says, "the stars are instruments of far +greater use, than to give an obscure light, and for men to gaze on after +sunset;" and he quotes Plotinus as affirming that they "are significant, +but not efficient;" and also Augustine as saying, "_Deus regit inferiora +corpora per superiora_:" God rules the bodies below by those above. But +best of all is this which another writer has expressed: "_Sapiens +adjuvabit opus astrorum quemadmodum agricola terrae naturam_:" a wise man +assisteth the work of the stars as the husbandman helpeth the nature of +the soil. + +It does not concern men who are asleep in their beds, but it is very +important to the traveller, whether the moon shines brightly or is +obscured. It is not easy to realize the serene joy of all the earth, when +she commences to shine unobstructedly, unless you have often been abroad +alone in moonlight nights. She seems to be waging continual war with the +clouds in your behalf. Yet we fancy the clouds to be _her_ foes also. She +comes on magnifying her dangers by her light, revealing, displaying them +in all their hugeness and blackness, then suddenly casts them behind into +the light concealed, and goes her way triumphant through a small space of +clear sky. + +In short, the moon traversing, or appearing to traverse, the small clouds +which lie in her way, now obscured by them, now easily dissipating and +shining through them, makes the drama of the moonlight night to all +watchers and night-travellers. Sailors speak of it as the moon eating up +the clouds. The traveller all alone, the moon all alone, except for his +sympathy, overcoming with incessant victory whole squadrons of clouds +above the forests and lakes and hills. When she is obscured he so +sympathizes with her that he could whip a dog for her relief, as Indians +do. When she enters on a clear field of great extent in the heavens, and +shines unobstructedly, he is glad. And when she has fought her way through +all the squadron of her foes, and rides majestic in a clear sky unscathed, +and there are no more any obstructions in her path, he cheerfully and +confidently pursues his way, and rejoices in his heart, and the cricket +also seems to express joy in its song. + +How insupportable would be the days, if the night with its dews and +darkness did not come to restore the drooping world. As the shades begin +to gather around us, our primeval instincts are aroused, and we steal +forth from our lairs, like the inhabitants of the jungle, in search of +those silent and brooding thoughts which are the natural prey of the +intellect. + +Richter says that "The earth is every day overspread with the veil of +night for the same reason as the cages of birds are darkened, viz: that we +may the more readily apprehend the higher harmonies of thought in the hush +and quiet of darkness. Thoughts which day turns into smoke and mist, stand +about us in the night as light and flames; even as the column which +fluctuates above the crater of Vesuvius, in the daytime appears a pillar +of cloud, but by night a pillar of fire." + +There are nights in this climate of such serene and majestic beauty, so +medicinal and fertilizing to the spirit, that methinks a sensitive nature +would not devote them to oblivion, and perhaps there is no man but would +be better and wiser for spending them out of doors, though he should sleep +all the next day to pay for it; should sleep an Endymion sleep, as the +ancients expressed it,--nights which warrant the Grecian epithet +ambrosial, when, as in the land of Beulah, the atmosphere is charged with +dewy fragrance, and with music, and we take our repose and have our dreams +awake,--when the moon, not secondary to the sun, + + "gives us his blaze again, + Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day. + Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop, + Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime." + +Diana still hunts in the New England sky. + + "In Heaven queen she is among the spheres. + She, mistress-like, makes all things to be pure. + Eternity in her oft change she bears; + She Beauty is; by her the fair endure. + + Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide; + Mortality below her orb is placed; + By her lie virtues of the stars down slide; + By her is Virtue's perfect image cast." + +The Hindoos compare the moon to a saintly being who has reached the last +stage of bodily existence. + +Great restorer of antiquity, great enchanter. In a mild night, when the +harvest or hunter's moon shines unobstructedly, the houses in our village, +whatever architect they may have had by day, acknowledge only a master. +The village street is then as wild as the forest. New and old things are +confounded. I know not whether I am sitting on the ruins of a wall, or on +the material which is to compose a new one. Nature is an instructed and +impartial teacher, spreading no crude opinions, and flattering none; she +will be neither radical nor conservative. Consider the moonlight, so +civil, yet so savage! + +The light is more proportionate to our knowledge than that of day. It is +no more dusky in ordinary nights, than our mind's habitual atmosphere, and +the moonlight is as bright as our most illuminated moments are. + + "In such a night let me abroad remain + Till morning breaks, and all's confused again." + +Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an +inward dawn?--to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the +morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring. + +When Ossian in his address to the sun exclaims, + + "Where has darkness its dwelling? + Where is the cavernous home of the stars, + When thou quickly followest their steps, + Pursuing them like a hunter in the sky,-- + Thou climbing the lofty hills, + They descending on barren mountains?" + +who does not in his thought accompany the stars to their "cavernous home," +"descending" with them "on barren mountains?" + +Nevertheless, even by night the sky is blue and not black, for we see +through the shadow of the earth into the distant atmosphere of day, where +the sunbeams are revelling. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Excursions, by Henry D. 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