The universe is so aptly fitted to our organization that the eye wanders and reposes at the same time. On every side there is some...thing to soothe and refresh this sense. Look up at the tree-tops, and see how finely Nature finishes off her work there. See how the pines spire without end higher and higher, and make a graceful fringe to the earth. And who shall count the finer cobwebs that soar and float away from their utmost post, and the myriad insects that dodge between them? Leaves are of more various forms than the alphabets of all languages put together; of the oaks alone there are hardly two alike, and each expresses its own character.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We had hardly got out of the streets of Bangor before I began to be exhilarated by the sight of the wild fir and spruce tops, and ...those of other primitive evergreens, peering through the mist in the horizon. It was like the sight and odor of cake to a schoolboy.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I grow old . . . I grow old . . . I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled....
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze,... Bow themselves when he did sing. To his Musicke, Plants and Flowers Ever spring; as Sunne and Showres, There had been a lasting Spring. Every thing that heard him play, Even the Billowes of the Sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by. In sweet Musicke is such Art, Killing care, and griefe of heart, Fall asleepe, or hearing dye.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.... I must be gone and live, or stay and die.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Pornographers subvert this last, vital privacy; they do our imagining for us. They take away the words that were of the night and ...shout them over the roof-tops, making them hollow.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is easier to discover another such a new world as Columbus did, than to go within one fold of this which we appear to know so w...ell; the land is lost sight of, the compass varies, and mankind mutiny; and still history accumulates like rubbish before the portals of nature. But there is only necessary a moment's sanity and sound senses, to teach us that there is a nature behind the ordinary, in which we have only some vague preemption right and western reserve as yet. We live on the outskirts of that region. Carved wood, and floating boughs, and sunset skies are all that we know of it.... Let us not, my friends, be wheedled and cheated into good behavior to earn the salt of our eternal porridge, whoever they are that attempt it. Let us wait a little, and not purchase any clearing here, trusting that richer bottoms will soon be put up. It is but thin soil where we stand; I have felt my roots in a richer ere this. I have seen a bunch of violets in a glass vase, tied loosely with a straw, which reminded me of myself.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In the declining day the thoughts make haste to rest in darkness, and hardly look forward to the ensuing morning. The thoughts of ...the old prepare for night and slumber. The same hopes and prospects are not for him who stands upon the rosy mountain-tops of life, and him who expects the setting of his earthly day.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, cli...nging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare's description of the sea-floor.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The horned pout (Pimelodus nebulosus), sometimes called Minister, from the peculiar squeaking noise it makes when drawn out of the... water, is a dull and blundering fellow, and, like the eel, vespertinal in his habits and fond of the mud. It bites deliberately, as if about its business.... They are extremely tenacious of life, opening and shutting their mouths for half an hour after their heads have been cut off; a bloodthirsty and bullying race of rangers, inhabiting the fertile river bottoms, with ever a lance in rest, and ready to do battle with their nearest neighbor.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »