How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, who will unmask his mind, unbutt...on his brains, and pour forth in careless and picturesque phrase all the results of his studies and observation; his knowledge of men, books, and nature. On the contrary, if a man has by any chance an original idea, he hoards it as if it were old gold; and rather avoids the subject with which he is most conversant, from fear that you may appropriate his best thoughts.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The student of Nature wonders the more and is astonished the less, the more conversant he becomes with her operations; but of all ...the perennial miracles she offers to his inspection, perhaps the most worthy of admiration is the development of a plant or of an animal from its embryo.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whether there be any such moral principles, wherein all men do agree, I appeal to any, who have been but moderately conversant in ...the history of mankind, and looked abroad beyond the smoke of their own chimneys. Where is that practical truth, that is universally received without doubt or question, as it must be, if innate?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is generally supposed that they who have long been conversant with the ocean can foretell, by certain indications, such as its ...roar and the notes of sea-fowl, when it will change from calm to storm; but probably no such ancient mariner as we dream of exists; they know no more, at least, than the older sailors do about this voyage of life on which we are all embarked. Nevertheless, we love to hear the sayings of old sailors, and their accounts of natural phenomena which totally ignore, and are ignored by, science; and possibly they have not always looked over the gunwale so long in vain.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He who is conversant with the supernal powers will not worship these inferior deities of the wind, waves, tide, and sunshine. But ...we would not disparage the importance of such calculations as we have described. They are truths in physics because they are true in ethics.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We have often thought that the fittest locality for a human dwelling was on the edge of the land, that there the constant lesson a...nd impression of the sea might sink deep into the life and character of the landsman, and perhaps impart a marine tint to his imagination. It is a noble word, that mariner,--one who is conversant with the sea. There should be more of what it signifies in each of us. It is a worthy country to belong to,--we look to see him not disgrace it. Perhaps we should be equally mariners and terraners, and even our Green Mountains need some of that sea-green to be mixed with them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is true, we are such poor navigators that our thoughts, for the most part, stand off and on upon a harborless coast, are conver...sant only with the bights of the bays of poesy, or steer for the public ports of entry, and go into the dry docks of science, where they merely refit for this world, and no natural currents concur to individualize them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »