Before the land rose out of the ocean, and became dry land, chaos reigned; and between high and low water mark, where she is parti...ally disrobed and rising, a sort of chaos reigns still, which only anomalous creatures can inhabit.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root gro...ws old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whenever we awoke in the night, still eking out our dreams with half-awakened thoughts, it was not till after an interval, when th...e wind breathed harder than usual, flapping the curtains of the tent, and causing its cords to vibrate, that we remembered that we lay on the bank of the Merrimack, and not in our chamber at home. With our heads so low in the grass, we heard the river whirling and sucking, and lapsing downward, kissing the shore as it went, sometimes rippling louder than usual, and again its mighty current making only a slight limpid, trickling sound, as if our water-pail had sprung a leak, and the water were flowing into the grass by our side. The wind, rustling the oaks and hazels, impressed us like a wakeful and inconsiderate person up at midnight, moving about, and putting things to rights, occasionally stirring up whole drawers full of leaves at a puff. There seemed to be a great haste and preparation throughout Nature, as for a distinguished visitor.... And then the wind would lull and die away, and we like it fell asleep again.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Near the lake, which we were approaching with as much expectation as if it had been a university,--for it is not often that the st...ream of our life opens into such expansions,--were islands, and a low and meadowy shore with scattered trees, birches, white and yellow, slanted over the water, and maples,--many of the white birches killed, apparently by inundations. There was considerable native grass; and even a few cattle--whose movements we heard, though we did not see them, mistaking them at first for moose--were pastured there.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man: wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning ...with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The forest has never so good a setting, nor is so distinctly beautiful, as when seen from the middle of a small lake amid hills wh...ich rise from the water's edge; for the water in which it is reflected not only makes the best foreground in such a case, but, with its winding shore, the most natural and agreeable boundary to it. There is no rawness nor imperfection in its edge there, as where the axe has cleared a part, or a cultivated field abuts on it. The trees have ample room to expand on the water side, and each sends forth its most vigorous branch in that direction. There Nature has woven a natural selvage, and the eye rises by just gradations from the low shrubs of the shore to the highest trees. There are few traces of man's hand to be seen. The water laves the shore as it did a thousand years ago.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Next to reasoning, the greatest handicap to the optimum development of Man lies in the fact that this planet is just barely habita...ble. Its minimum temperatures are too low, and its maximum temperatures too high. Its day is not long enough, and its night is too long. The disposition of its water and earth is distinctly unfortunate (the existence of the Mediterranean Sea in the place where we find it is perhaps the unhappiest accident in the whole firmament). These factors encourage depression, fear, war, and lack of vitality. They describe a planet, which is by no means perfectly devised for the nurturing or for the perpetuation of a higher intelligence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,... I hear it in the deep heart's core.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »