But select and
classic, and read only particular ten languages, which are
t dialects and provincial, we are in danger of
forgetting ts speak
metapandard. Much is published,
but little printed. tream tter will
be no longer remembered wter is wholly removed. No
mety of being forever
on t. is a course of ory or pry,
no matter ed, or t society, or t
admirable routine of life, compared he discipline of looking
al o be seen? ill you be a reader, a student
merely, or a seer? Read your fate, see w is before you, and walk
on into futurity.
I did not read books t summer; I hoed beans. Nay, I
often did better times w
afford to sacrifice t moment to any work,
wo my life.
Sometimes, in a summer morning, aken my accustomed bath, I
sat in my sunny doorill noon, rapt in a revery,
amidst turbed solitude
and stillness, wted noiseless
til by t my window, or
travellers ant highway, I was
reminded of time. I grehose seasons like corn in
t, and tter the hands would
time subtracted from my life, but so much
over and above my usual alloals
mean by contemplation and t
part, I minded not . to
lig is evening,
and notead of singing like the
birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune. As the
sparrorill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had
I my c of my
nest. My days days of tamp of any
y, nor o ted by the
ticking of a clock; for I lived like t is
said t quot;for yesterday, today, and tomorrohey have only one
y of meaning by pointing backward
for yesterday foromorrow, and overhe passing
day.quot; to my felloo; but
if tried me by tandard, I should
not ing. A man must find his occasions in
is true. tural day is very calm, and will hardly
reprove his indolence.
I age, at least, in my mode of life, over those
, to society and the
tre, t my life itself and never
ceased to be novel. It an
end. If ting our living, and regulating
our lives according to t and best mode we had learned, we
sroubled h ennui. Follow your genius closely
enoug fail to s every
pastime. y, I
rose early, and, setting all my furniture out of doors on the grass,
bed and bedstead making but one budget, daser on the floor,
and sprinkled , and th a broom
scrubbed it clean and ime the villagers had
broken t tly to
alloo move in again, and my meditations
uninterupted. It to see my
on ttle pile like a gypsys pack, and my
table, from he books and pen
and ink, standing amid to
get out to be brought in. I was
sometimes tempted to stretcake my seat
t o see things,
and eresting most
familiar objects look out of doors ts
on t bouging groable, and
blackberry vines run round its legs; pine cones, cnut burs, and
strare. It looked as if the
o be transferred to our furniture, to tables,
ceads -- because tood in t.
My ely on the edge of
t of a young forest of pitch pines and
o which a narrow
footpat yard grerawberry,
blackberry, and life-everlasting, jo and goldenrod, shrub
oaks and sand c. Near the end of May,
th
its delicate flo its
s stems, h goodsized
and hs like rays on every side.
I tasted t of compliment to Nature, they were scarcely
palatable. tly about the
which I had made, and
gro t season. Its broad pinnate
tropical leaf trange to look on. the large
buds, suddenly pus late in ticks which
o be dead, developed to
graceful green and tender bouger; and
sometimes, as I sat at my window, so hey grow and
tax ts, I ender bough suddenly
fall like a fan to t a breath of air
stirring, broken off by its ohe large masses
of berries, ed many wild bees,
gradually assumed t velvety crimson heir
ender limbs.
As I sit at my ernoon, hawks are circling
about my clearing; tantivy of wo and
t my viee pine
bougo the air; a fish hawk
dimples the pond and brings up a fish; a mink
steals out of the
s of the reed-birds
flitting half-hour I have heard
ttle of railroad cars, nohen reviving like
t of a partridge, conveying travellers from Boston to the
country. For I did not live so out of t boy who, as
I out to a farmer in t part of to
ere long ran a the heel and
-of-the-way place;
t even he
if tts now:--
quot;In trutt
For one of t railroad ss, and oer
Our peaceful plain its soot;
tcouc a hundred rods
souto ts
cause ed to society by the
men on t trains, whe road,
boo me as to an old acquaintance, ten, and
apparently take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would
fain be a track-repairer someh.
tle of tive penetrates my woods summer and
er, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some
farmers yard, informing me t many restless city mercs are
arriving ourous country
traders from they
s to get off track to ther, heard
sometimes towns. here come your
groceries, country; your rations, countrymen! Nor is there any man
so independent on hem nay. And heres
your pay for trymans imber like
long battering-rams going ty miles an tys
all t
dy the
country o ty. All the Indian huckleberry hills
are stripped, all to ty. Up
comes tton, dohe silk, down
goes t do t
es them.
ts train of cars moving off h
planetary motion -- or, rat, for the beholder knows
not if velocity and direction it will ever
revisit tem, since its orbit does not look like a returning
curve -- s steam cloud like a banner streaming behind in
golden and silver hs, like many a downy cloud which I have
seen, s masses to t -- as
if traveling demigod, take
t sky for train; whe iron
like the
eart, and breatrils
(o the
ne kno seems as if t a race
noo in it. If all seems, and men made the
elements ts for noble ends! If t hangs
over tion of heroic deeds, or as
beneficent as t he
elements and Nature heir
errands and be t.
I che same feeling
t I do the sun, which is hardly more regular.
train of clouds stretching far behind and rising higher and
o o Boston, conceals
te and casts my distant field into the shade, a
celestial train beside rain of cars whe
eart tabler of the iron horse
er morning by t of tars amid the
mountains, to fodder and eed. Fire, too, was awakened
to put tal in he
enterprise as it is early! If the snow lies deep,
trap on plow, plow a furrow
from tains to the cars, like a
folloless men and floating
mercry for seed. All day teed flies
over try, stopping only t er may rest, and I am
a snort at midnight, when in some
remote glen in ts ts incased in ice and
snoar, to
start once more on ravels rest or slumber. Or
perc evening, I able blohe
superfluous energy of t he may calm his nerves and cool
he
enterprise racted and
unwearied!
Far ted owns, where
once only ter penetrated by day, in t nig
t saloons tants;
t stopping at some brilliant station-own or
city, he Dismal
Sartings and arrivals of the
cars are noh
sucy and precision, and tle can be heard so
far, t t thus one
ed institution regulates a wry. men
improved someuality since ted?
Do t talk and ter in t the
stage-office? trifying in tmosphere of
tonis t has
wroug some of my neighbors, who, I should have prophesied,
once for all, to Boston by so prompt a conveyance,
are on o do t;railroad fas; is
no is o be en and
so sincerely by any poo get off its track. there is no
stopping to read t act, no firing over the mob,
in tructed a fate, an Atropos, t never
turns aside. (Let t be the name of your engine.) Men are
advertised t at a certain e ts will be
s toicular points of t it interferes h
no mans business, and to scrack.
e live teadier for it. e are all educated to be sons of
tell. ts. Every pat your own
is te. Keep on your orack, then.
recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery.
It does not clasp its o Jupiter. I see these men
every day go about th more or less courage and
content, doing more even t, and percter
employed they could have consciously devised. I am less
affected by tood up for
line at Buena Vista, teady and che
men er quarters; w
merely te
t , but o rest so
early, he sinews of
teed are frozen. On t Snow,
percill raging and chilling mens blood, I bear
tone of t their
c t
long delay, notanding to of a Ne
snoorm, and I beh snow and rime,
turning down
ots of field mice, like bohe
Sierra Nevada, t occupy an outside place in the universe.
Commerce is unexpectedly confident and serene, alert,
adventurous, and un is very natural in its methods
astic enterprises and sentimental
experiments, and s singular success. I am refreshed and
expanded rain rattles past me, and I smell the
stores whe way from Long harf
to Lake Cs, of coral reefs,
and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and tent of the globe.
I feel more like a citizen of t t of the
palm-leaf w
summer, t he old junk, gunny
bags, scrap iron, and rusty nails. torn sails is
more legible and interesting no into
paper and printed books. e so grapory
of torms ts hey
are proof-ss wion. here goes lumber from
t go out to sea in t fres,
risen four dollars on t did go out or was
split up; pine, spruce, cedar -- first, second, th
qualities, so lately all of one quality, to he bear, and
moose, and caribou. Next rolls ton lime, a prime lot, which
far among t gets slacked. these rags in
bales, of all ies, t condition to which
cotton and linen descend, t of dress -- of patterns
w be in Milwaukee, as
ticles, Engliss,
gingc., gaters both of fashion
and poverty, going to become paper of one color or a few shades
only, on ales of real life, high
and lo! t fish,
trong Ne, reminding me of the
Grand Banks and t seen a salt fish,
t not, and
putting, ts to th which you
may sreets, and split your kindlings, and the
teamster ser sun, wind, and rain
be -- and trader, as a Concord trader once did,
up by il at last
customer cannot tell surely w be animal,
vegetable, or mineral, and yet it shall be as pure as a snowflake,
and if it be put into a pot and boiled, an excellent
dun-fisurdays dinner. Next Spanishe
tails still preserving t and tion they
he pampas of
type of all obstinacy, and evincing
itutional vices. I confess,
t practically speaking, when I have learned a mans real
disposition, I for tter or worse
in tate of existence. As tals say, quot;A curs tail may
be ures, and after a
to, still it ain its
natural form.quot; tual cure for suceracies as
tails ex is to make glue of t
is usually done ay put and stick.
ed to Joh,
Cuttingsville, Vermont, some trader among tains, who
imports for tands
over arrivals on t, how
t telling omers this
moment, as old ty times before t
s some by t train of prime quality. It is
advertised in ttingsville times.
he
wall pine, hewn
on far norts he Green
Mountains and ticut, s like an arrohe
toes, and scarce anot;
going
quot;to be t
Of some great ammiral.quot;
And tle-train bearing ttle of a
ts, stables, and cohe air,
drovers icks, and s of their
flocks, all but tain pastures, whirled along like leaves
bloains by tember gales. the air is filled
ing of calves and sling of oxen, as
if a pastoral valley he
tles ains do indeed skip like rams and
ttle oo, in the
midst, on a level ion gone, but
still clinging to ticks as their badge of office.
But t is a stampede to they are
quite t; t t. Methem
barking beerboro ing up tern slope
of tains. t be in at their
vocation, too, is gone. ty and sagacity are below par
noo their kennels in disgrace, or
percrike a league he fox.
So is your pastoral life the bell rings,
and I must get off track and let the cars go by;--
s to me?
I never go to see
ends.
It fills a few hollows,
And makes banks for the swallows,
It sets the sand a-blowing,
And the blackberries a-growing,
but I cross it like a cart-pat have my
eyes put out and my ears spoiled by its smoke and steam and hissing.
No tless h
their rumbling, I am
more alone t of ternoon, perhaps,
my meditations are interrupted only by t rattle of a
carriage or team along tant highway.
Sometimes, on Sundays, I on,
Bedford, or Concord bell, w,
s, and, as it ural melody, ing into the
a sufficient distance over this sound
acquires a certain vibratory he
rings of a s. All sound heard
at test possible distance produces one and t,
a vibration of t as tervening
atmospant ridge of earteresting to our eyes by
tint it imparts to it. to me in this case a
melody wrained, and wh
every leaf and needle of t portion of the sound which
ts aken up and modulated and eco
vale. to some extent, an original sound, and therein
is t. It is not merely a repetition of w
ing in t partly the wood;
trivial es sung by a wood-nymph.
At evening, tant lohe horizon beyond
t and melodious, and at first I ake
it for tain minstrels by wimes
serenaded, raying over soon I was
not unpleasantly disappointed o the cheap
and natural music of t mean to be satirical, but to
express my appreciation of tate t
I perceived clearly t it o the cow, and
t lengticulation of Nature.
Regularly at seven, in one part of ter
train ed their
vespers for ting on a stump by my door, or upon the
ridge-pole of to sing almost h as
muces of a particular time,
referred to tting of the sun, every evening. I had a rare
opportunity to become acquainted s. Sometimes I
once in different parts of the wood, by
accident one a bar be I
distinguis only ter eace, but often t
singular buzzing sound like a fly in a spiders web, only
proportionally louder. Sometimes one would circle round and round
me in t distant as if tetring, when
probably I s eggs. t intervals t the
nig before and about dawn.
ill, take up train,
like mourning u-lu-lu. their dismal scream is
truly Ben Jonsonian. ise midnig is no and blunt
tu-u-, jesting, a most solemn
graveyard ditty, tual consolations of suicide lovers
remembering ts of supernal love in the
infernal groves. Yet I love to heir doleful
responses, trilled along times of
music and singing birds; as if it earful side of
music, ts and sig he
spirits, ts and melancholy forebodings, of fallen souls
t once in -he deeds of
darkness, noing their wailing hymns or
transgressions. they give me a
ney and capacity of t nature which is our
common dwelling. O I never had been bor-r-r-r-n!
sighe
restlessness of despair to some new perchen --
t I never her
side remulous sincerity, and -- bor-r-r-r-n! comes faintly
from far in the Lincoln woods.
I hand you could
fancy it t melancure, as if s by
to stereotype and make permanent in he dying moans
of a ality w
h human sobs, on
entering tain gurgling
melodiousness -- I find myself beginning ters gl when I
try to imitate it -- expressive of a mind whe
gelatinous, mildeage in tification of all hy and
courageous t. It reminded me of gs and insane
norain made
really melodious by distance -- hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo; and indeed
for t part it suggested only pleasing associations, wher
, summer or er.
I rejoice t t tic and
maniacal ing for men. It is a sound admirably suited to swamps
and tes, suggesting a vast and
undeveloped nature
tark ts which all have. All day
the
single spruce stands h usnea lichens, and small hawks
circulate above, and the evergreens, and
tridge and rabbit skulk beneat now a more dismal and
fitting day da race of creatures ao
express ture there.
Late in tant rumbling of wagons over
bridges -- a sound any ot night --
times again the lowing of some
disconsolate coant barn-yard. In the
srump of bullfrogs, turdy spirits of
ancient ill unrepentant, trying to
sing a catcygian lake -- if the alden nymphs will
pardon t no here
are frogs the hilarious rules of
tal tables, their voices have waxed hoarse and
solemnly grave, mocking at mirt its flavor,
and become only liquor to distend t
intoxication never comes to dro, but mere
saturation and erloggedness and distention. t aldermanic,
-leaf, wo his
drooling c of
ter, and passes round the
ejaculation tr-r-r-oonk, tr-r-r--oonk, tr-r-r-oonk! and straightway
comes over ter from some distant cove the same password
repeated, y and girto
of the
ses ter of ceremonies, isfaction,
tr-r-r-oonk! and eacurn repeats to t
distended, leakiest, and flabbiest paunc there be no
mistake; and til the sun
disperses t, and only triarc under the
pond, but vainly belloroonk from time to time, and pausing for
a reply.
I am not sure t I ever he sound of cock-crowing from
my clearing, and I t t it migo keep
a cockerel for e of
t is certainly t remarkable of
any birds, and if turalized being
domesticated, it famous sound in our
ing of the
oo fill the pauses
man added this
bird to ame stock -- to say noticks.
to er morning in a wood whese birds abounded,
tive woods, and rees,
clear and she
feebler notes of ot! It nations
on t. be early to rise, and rise earlier and
earlier every successive day of ill he became unspeakably
e is celebrated
by ts of all countries along es of tive
songsters. All climates agree icleer. he is more
indigenous even tives. h is ever good, his
lungs are sound, s never flag. Even the
Atlantic and Pacific is as shrill sound
never roused me from my slumbers. I kept neit, cow,
pig, nor you would here was a deficiency of
domestic sounds; neithe spinning-wheel, nor even
ttle, nor the urn, nor children
crying, to comfort one. An old-fas his
senses or died of ennui before t even rats in the wall, for
tarved out, or rated in -- only
squirrels on the
ridge-pole, a blue jay screaming beneathe window, a hare or
woodc owl be, a
flock of wild geese or a laugo
bark in t. Not even a lark or an oriole, those mild
plantation birds, ever visited my clearing. No cockerels to crow
nor o cackle in t unfenced nature
reaco your very sills. A young forest growing up under
your meadows, and wild sumachrough
into your cellar; sturdy pitc
t of room, ts reace under the
ead of a scuttle or a blind blohe gale -- a
pine tree snapped off or torn up by ts behind your house for
fuel. Instead of no pato t-yard gate in t Snow
-- no gate -- no front-yard -- and no pato the civilized world.