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
Thou art a personality so vast and universal that I have never seen
one of thy features. I am suddenly very near to another land than can
be bought and sold; this is not Charles Miles’s swamp. This is a far,
far-away field on the confines of the actual Concord, where nature is
partially present. These farms I have myself surveyed; these lines I
have run; these bounds I have set up; they have no chemistry to fix
them; they fade from the surface of the glass (the picture); this light
is too strong for them.
[Four and two thirds pages missing.]
My dear, my dewy sister, let thy rain descend on me. I not only love
thee, but I love the best of thee; that is to love thee rarely. I do
not love thee every day. Commonly I love those who are less than thou.
I love thee only on great days. Thy dewy words feed me like the manna
of the morning. I am as much thy sister as thy brother. Thou art as
much my brother as my sister. It is a portion of thee and a portion of
me which are of kin. Thou dost not have to woo me. I do not have to woo
thee. O my sister! O Diana, thy tracks are on the eastern hills. Thou
surely passedst that way. I, the hunter, saw them in the morning dew.
My eyes are the hounds that pursue thee. Ah, my friend, what if I do
not answer thee? I hear thee. Thou canst speak; I cannot. I hear and
forget to answer. I am occupied with hearing. I awoke and thought of
thee; thou wast present to my mind. How camest thou there? Was I not
present to thee likewise?[67]
* * * * *
The oystermen had anchored their boat near the shore without regard to
the state of the tide, and when we came to it to set sail, just after
noon, we found that it was aground. Seeing that they were preparing to
push it off, I was about to take off my shoes and stockings in order
to wade to it first, but a Dutch sailor with a singular bullfrog or
trilobite expression of the eyes, whose eyes were like frog ponds in
the broad platter of his cheeks and gleamed like a pool covered with
frog-spittle, immediately offered me the use of his back. So mounting,
with my legs under his arms, and hugging him like one of [the] family,
he set me aboard of the periauger?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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