Thoreau writes in his journal:
It was a portion of the natural surface of the earth itself which jutted out and became my roof the other day. How fit that Nature should thus shelter her own children! The first drops were dimpling the pond even as the fishes had done . . .
Thoreau writes in his journal:
Strawberries reddening on some hills.
Found within three rods of Flint’s Pond a rose-breasted grosbeak’s nest. It was in a thicket where there was much cat-briar, in a high blueberry bush, some five feet from the ground, in the forks of the bush, and of very loose construction . . .
Thoreau writes in his journal:
P.M.—To river behind Hubbard’s Grove . . .
8 P.M.—Up Assabet . . .
Hear the sound of Barrett’s sawmill first like a drum, then like a train of cars.
Thoreau writes in his journal:
Thoreau also replies to Charles Stearns Wheeler’s letter of 6 January (The Correspondence (2013, Princeton), 1:63-4; MS missing). Wheeler replies 4 March.
Thoreau also writes to Lucy Jackson Brown:
I believe I have nothing new to tell you, for what was news you have learned from other sources. I am much the same person that I was, who should be so much better; yet when I realize what has transpired, and the greatness of the part I am unconsciously acting, I am thrilled, and it seems as if there were now a history to match it.
Soon after John’s death I listened to a music-box, and if, at any time, that even had seemed inconsistent with the beauty and harmony of the universe, it was then gently constrained into the placid course of nature by those steady notes, in mild and unoffended tone echoing far and wide under the heavens. But I find these things more strange than sad to me. What right have I to grieve, who have not ceased to wonder?
We feel at first as if some opportunities of kindness and sympathy were lost, but learn afterward that any pure grief is ample recompense for all. That is, if we are faithful;—for a spent grief is but sympathy with the soul that disposes events, and is as natural as the resin of Arabian trees.—Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.
We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is more persuasive than the experience of present ones. There have been visions of such breadth and brightness that these motes were invisible in their light.
I do not wish to see John [John Thoreau Jr.] ever again—I mean him who is dead—but that other whom only he would have wished to see, or to be, of whom he was the imperfect representative. For we are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.
As for Waldo, [Waldo Emerson] he died as the mist rises from the brook, which the sun will soon dart his rays through. Do not the flowers die every autumn? He had not even taken root here. I was not startled to hear that he was dead;—it seemed the most natural event that could happen. His fine organization demanded it, and nature gently yielded its request. It would have been strange if he had lived. Neither will nature manifest any sorrow at his death, but soon the note of the lark will be heard down in the meadow, and fresh dandelions will spring from the old stocks where he plucked them last summer. I have been living ill of late, but am now doing better. How do you live in that Plymouth world, now-a-days?—Please remember me to Mary Russell [Mary Howland Russell].—You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds, for I remain Your Friend,
Henry D. Thoreau.
Thoreau writes in his journal:
Thoreau writes in his journal:
Thoreau writes in his journal:
I made a burning-glass of ice, which produced a light sensation of warmth on the back of my hand, but was so untrue that it did not concentrate the rays to a sufficiently small focus. Returning over Great Fields, found half a dozen arrowheads, one with three scallops in the base.
Thoreau writes in his journal:
P.M.—Walking up the river by Pritchard’s, was surprised to see, on the snow over the river, a great many seeds and scales of birches, though the snow has so recently fallen, there had been but little wind, and it was already spring… The opening in the river at Merrick’s is now increased to ten feet in width in some places . . .
New Bedford, Mass. Daniel Ricketson writes to Thoreau (Concord Saunterer 19, no. 1 (July 1987):26-7).
Washington, D.C. Horace Greeley writes to Thoreau (Studies in the American Renaissance 1982, 368; MS, private owner).
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