Journal 02, 1850-September 15, 1851: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 08 (of 20)Thoreau, Henry David
Religion
Journal 02, 1850-September 15, 1851: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume 08 (of 20)
Thoreau, Henry David
Authors, American -- 19th century -- Diaries; Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862 -- Diaries
4 A. M.—It adds a charm, a dignity, a glory, to the earth to see the
light of the moon reflected from her streams. There are but us three,
the moon, the earth which wears this jewel (the moon’s reflection) in
her crown, and myself. Now there has come round the Cliff (on which I
sit), which faces the west, all unobserved and mingled with the dusky
sky of night, a lighter and more ethereal living blue, whispering of
the sun still far, far away, behind the horizon. From the summit of our
atmosphere, perchance, he may already be seen by soaring spirits that
inhabit those thin upper regions, and they communicate the glorious
intelligence to us lower ones. The real _divine_, the heavenly, blue,
the Jove-containing air, it is, I see through this dusky lower stratum.
The sun gilding the summits of the air. The broad artery of light flows
over all the sky. Yet not without sadness and compassion I reflect that
I shall not see the moon again in her glory. (Not far from four, still
in the night, I heard a nighthawk squeak and _boom_, high in the air,
as I sat on the Cliff. What is said about this being less of a night
bird than the whip-poor-will is perhaps to be questioned. For neither
do I remember to have heard the whip-poor-will _sing_ at 12 o’clock,
though I met one sitting and flying between two and three this morning.
I believe that both may be heard at midnight, though very rarely.)
Now at _very earliest_ dawn the nighthawk booms and the whip-poor-will
sings. Returning down the hill by the path to where the woods [are] cut
off, I see the signs of the day, the morning red. There is the lurid
morning star, soon to be blotted out by a cloud.
There is an early redness in the east which I was not prepared for,
changing to amber or saffron, with clouds beneath in the horizon and
also above this clear streak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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