Friends—The Loading and Launching of the Boat—Gracefulness—On the Merrimack—The Era of the Indian—Fate of the Indian—Criticism's Apology—Life—Suspicion—The Purple Finch—Gower's Poetry—Light—Indian Implements—Success in Proportion to Average Ability—Kindness—Fog—The Attitude of Quarles and his Contemporaries towards Nature—The Mystery of Life—Three-o'clock-in-the-Morning Courage—A Recent Book—Museums—Some Old English Poets—Our Kindred—Friendship—Skating after a Fox—To a Marsh Hawk in the Spring—The Gardener—A Fisherman's Account at the Store—Finny Contemporaries—Marlowe—Thaw—Modern Nymphs—Living by Self-Defense—The Survival of the Birds—The Slaughter-House—The Tragedy of the Muskrat—Carlyle not to be Studied—The Subject of the Lecture—The Character of our Life—The Sovereignty of the Mind—Coöperation. ILLUSTRATIONS WHITE VIOLETS, Carbon photograph (page 304) Frontispiece VIEW FROM ANNURSNACK HILL Colored plate HENRY DAVID THOREAU IN 1854, FROM THE ROWSE CRAYON IN THE CONCORD PUBLIC LIBRARY 1 FROST CRYSTALS AT THE MOUTH OF A HOLE IN A BANK 22 VIEW FROM ANNURSNACK HILL 84 TREES REFLECTED IN THE RIVER 140 WINTER LANDSCAPE FROM FAIRHAVEN HILL 296 INTRODUCTION