tracts by tters commonly causes a
pond to break up earlier; for ter, agitated by the wind, even
in cold suc
t on alden t year, for s a thick new
garment to take this pond never breaks up so
soon as t bots
greater depts ream passing t to melt or
to open in the course of a
er, not excepting t of 52-3, whe ponds so severe
a trial. It commonly opens about t of April, a en
days later ts Pond and Fair o melt on
ts o freeze.
It indicates better ter s te progress
of t affected by transient changes of
temperature. A severe cold of a feion in March may very
mucard temperature
of alden increases almost uninterruptedly. A ter t
into tood at 32x,
or freezing point; near t 33x; in ts
Pond, t 32+x; at a dozen rods from the shore, in
ser, under ice a foot t 36x. this difference of
temperature of ter
and tter pond, and t t a great
proportion of it is comparatively s should break
up so muc part was
at time several inche middle. In
mider t and t
t the
pond in summer must er is
close to than a
little distance out, and on t is deep, than near
ttom. In spring t only exerts an influence through
temperature of t its passes
t or more ted from ttom
in ser, and so also er and melts the under
side of t time t it is melting it more
directly above, making it uneven, and causing the air bubbles which
it contains to extend til it is
completely last disappears suddenly in a single
spring rain. Ice s grain as well as wood, and when a cake
begins to rot or quot;comb,quot; t is, assume the appearance of
ever may be its position, t right
angles er surface. here is a rock or a
log rising near to t is muchinner, and
is frequently quite dissolved by ted ; and I have
been told t in t at Cambridge to freeze er in a
sed underneath, and
so o botion of the
bottom more terbalanced tage. hen a warm rain
in ter melts off the snow-ice from alden, and
leaves a ransparent ice on there will be a
strip of rotten te ice, a rod or more
ted by ted . Also, as I have said,
te as burning-glasses to
melt th.
take place every day in a pond on a
small scale. Every morning, generally speaking, ter
is being may not be
made so er all, and every evening it is being cooled more
rapidly until tome of the
niger, the spring and
fall, and the
ice indicate a cemperature. One pleasant morning after a
cold nigo Flints Pond to
spend ticed he ice
resounded like a gong for many rods
around, or as if I ruck on a tighe pond began
to boom about an er sunrise, the influence of
ted upon it from over t stretched
itself and yah a gradually increasing
tumult, took a s
siesta at noon, and boomed once more toward nighe sun was
stage of ther a pond
fires its evening gun regularity. But in the middle of
tic,
it ely lost its resonance, and probably fishes and
muskrats could not tunned by a blo. the
fis t;t; scares the fishes
and prevents ting. t thunder every evening,
and I cannot tell surely its t though I
may perceive no difference in t does. ho would have
suspected so large and cold and to be so
sensitive? Yet it s lao hunders obedience when
it sh is
all alive and covered pond is as
sensitive to atmosps
tube.
One attraction in coming to to live I should
unity to see the ice in
t lengto be my heel
in it as I walk. Fogs and rains and warmer suns are gradually
melting the days have grown sensibly longer; and I see how
I s ter adding to my wood-pile, for
large fires are no longer necessary. I am on t for the
first signs of spring, to e of some arriving
bird, or triped squirrels cores must be now
nearly exed, or see ture out of er
quarters. On ter I he bluebird,
song sparroill nearly a foot thick.
As t sensibly he
er, nor broken up and floated off as in rivers, but, t
ely melted for the
middle ed er, so t you
could put your foot t he
next day evening, perer a
would ed
a across t
disappeared entirely. In 1845 alden completely open on
t of April; in 46, th of
April; in 51, th of April; in 53,
t th of April.
Every incident connected he rivers and
ponds and ttling of ticularly interesting to
us extremes. he warmer days
come, t nigh
a startling s icy fetters were
rent from end to end, and rapidly going
out. So tor comes out of the
earture, and
seems as to all ions as if she
upon tocks wo
lay o h, and can hardly acquire
more of natural lore if o thuselah --
told me -- and I o any of
Natures operations, for I t t ts
bet one spring day ook , and
t t tle sport here was
ice still on t it of the river, and
obstruction from Sudbury, wo
Fair edly, covered for t
part was a warm day, and he was
surprised to see so great a body of ice remaining. Not seeing any
ducks, on the
pond, and to
a ted for the
s of er, h a muddy
bottom, suc it likely
t some ty soon. After ill there
about an ant sound, but
singularly grand and impressive, unlike anything he had ever heard,
gradually s would have a universal
and memorable ending, a sullen ruso him
all at once like t body of foo
settle tarted up in e and
excited; but o the
ice arted o the shore, and
ts edge grating on the shore --
at first gently nibbled and crumbled off, but at length heaving up
and scattering its o a considerable
before it came to a standstill.
At lengttained t angle, and warm
and rain and melt the sun,
dispersing t, smiles on a c and
raveller picks his
to islet, cinkling
rills and rivulets wer
whey are bearing off.
Feo observe the forms
whe sides of a
deep cut on to the
village, a p very common on so large a scale, though
t material must have
been greatly multiplied since railroads ed. terial
was sand of every degree of fineness and of various rich colors,
commonly mixed tle clay. comes out in the
spring, and even in a ter, to
floimes bursting out the
sno wo be seen before.
Innumerable little streams overlap and interlace one her,
exing a sort of , whe law of
currents, and of vegetation. As it flo takes the
forms of sappy leaves or vines, making
or more in depthe
laciniated, lobed, and imbricated thalluses of some lichens; or you
are reminded of coral, of leopards pa, of brains
or lungs or bos of all kinds. It is a truly
grotesque vegetation, ed in
bronze, a sort of arcectural foliage more ancient and typical
table leaves;
destined perances, to become a puzzle to
future geologists. t impressed me as if it were a cave
s stalactites laid open to t. the various shades of
t
iron colors, brown, gray, yellowishe flowing
mass reac t of t spreads out
flatter into strands, te streams losing their
semi-cylindrical form and gradually becoming more flat and broad,
running toget, till t
flat sand, still variously and beautifully s in which you
can trace tation; till at lengthe
er itself, ted into banks, like those formed off
tation are lost in the
ripple marks on ttom.
ty to forty feet high, is
sometimes overlaid his kind of foliage, or sandy
rupture, for a quarter of a mile on one or bothe produce
of one spring day. makes ts
springing into existence the one side
t bank -- for ts on one side first -- and on the
ot foliage, tion of an ed
as if in a peculiar sense I stood in tory of tist
work,
sporting on trewing his fresh
designs about. I feel as if I o tals of the
globe, for thing such a foliaceous mass
as tals of the very sands
an anticipation of table leaf. No th
expresses itself out so labors he idea
inoms
by it. ts prototype. Internally,
thick lobe, a
o the leaves of
fat (jnai, labor, lapsus, to flow or slip downward, a lapsing;
jiais, globus, lobe, globe; also lap, flap, and many other words);
externally a dry the f and v are a pressed and
dried b. t mass of the b
(single lobed, or B, double lobed),
pressing it fortural g adds to the
meaning ty of t. thers and wings of birds
are still drier and the
lumpiso ttering butterfly. the
very globe continually transcends and translates itself, and becomes
s orbit. Even ice begins e crystal leaves,
as if it o moulds s have
impressed on tery mirror. tree itself is but one
leaf, and rivers are still vaster leaves wervening
eartoies are ts in their axils.
o flo in the
morning treams art once more and branch and branch again
into a myriad of others. You here see perchance how blood-vessels
are formed. If you look closely you observe t first there pushes
forream of softened sand h a
drop-like point, like ts way slowly
and blindly doil at last and moisture, as
ts fluid portion, in its effort to obey
to also yields, separates from the
latter and forms for itself a meandering cery hin
t, in ream glancing like
ligage of pulpy leaves or branco another, and
ever and anon s is wonderful how rapidly
yet perfectly tself as it flo
material its mass affords to form ts channel.
Sucter whe
er deposits is perem, and in till finer
soil and organic matter tissue.
is man but a mass of the human finger is
but a drop congealed. toes floo tent
from t the human body
to under a more genial the
s lobes and veins? the ear may be
regarded, fancifully, as a liche
s lobe or drop. the lip -- labium, from labor (?) --
laps or lapses from the nose is a
manifest congealed drop or stalactite. till larger
drop, t dripping of the cheeks are a slide
from to the face, opposed and diffused by
table leaf, too, is a
tering drop, larger or smaller; the
fingers of t has, in so many
directions it tends to floher genial
influences o flo farther.
t seemed t trated the principle
of all tions of Nature. t
patented a leaf. Chis hieroglyphic
for us, t urn over a ne last? this phenomenon
is more exing to me tility of
vineyards. true, it is someitious in its cer,
and to ts, and bowels, as if
turned ts at least
t Nature y.
t coming out of t
precedes thology precedes regular
poetry. I knoive of er fumes and
indigestions. It convinces me t Eartill in her
sretch baby fingers on every side.
Fres brohing
inorganic. the slag
of a furnace, s Nature is quot;in full blastquot; he
eart a mere fragment of dead ory, stratum upon stratum
like to be studied by geologists and
antiquaries c living poetry like tree,
a fossil eart a living
eart central life all animal and
vegetable life is merely parasitic. Its throes will heave our
exuviae from t your metals and cast them
into t beautiful moulds you can; te me
like ten eart into. And not only
it, but titutions upon it are plastic like clay in the hands
of tter.
Ere long, not only on t on every hill and plain
and in every comes out of the ground like a
dormant quadruped from its burroh music, or
migrates to otle persuasion
is more pos, the
ot breaks in pieces.
ially bare of snow, and a few warm days
s surface some to compare t
tender signs of t year just peeping fortately
beauty of tation he
er -- life-everlasting, goldenrods, pinweeds, and graceful wild
grasses, more obvious and interesting frequently than in summer
even, as if ty ripe till tton-grass,
cat-tails, mulleins, jo, , and other
strong-stemmed plants, ted granaries ain
t birds -- decent least, wure
icularly attracted by the arching and sheaf-like
top of t brings back to our er
memories, and is among t loves to copy, and which,
in table kingdom, ion to types already in
t astronomy is an antique style, older
tian. Many of ter are
suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. e
are accustomed to erous
tyrant; but leness of a lover resses of
Summer.
At t under my house,
t a time, directly under my feet as I sat reading or ing,
and kept up t chuckling and chirruping and vocal
pirouetting and gurgling sounds t ever were heard; and when I
stamped t all fear and
respect in ty to stop them. No, you
dont -- co my
arguments, or failed to perceive to a strain
of invective t ible.
t sparroh younger
silvery warblings he
partially bare and moist fields from the song sparrow,
and t flakes of er tinkled as they
fell! at sucime are ories, craditions,
and all ten revelations? to
the meadow, is already
seeking t slimy life t ahe sinking sound of
melting snow is he ice dissolves apace in
the hillsides like a spring fire
-- quot;et primitus oritur aquot; -- as if
t fort to greet turning sun; not
yello green is ts flame; -- the symbol of
perpetual youtreams
from to t, but anon
pusing its spear of last years he
fres groeadily as t of the
ground. It is almost identical , for in the growing days
of June, wheir
co year t this perennial
green stream, and t betimes ter
supply. So our dies doo its root, and still puts
forts green blade to eternity.
alden is melting apace. two rods wide along
terly sides, and ill at t end.
A great field of ice he main body. I hear a
song sparro, olit,
olit -- coo
is o crack it. sweeping curves in
t to t
more regular! It is unusually o t severe but
transient cold, and all ered or
ts opaque surface in vain, till it
reac is glorious to behis
ribbon of er sparkling in the pond full
of glee and yout spoke t,
and of ts she scales
of a leuciscus, as it ive fishe
contrast beter and spring. alden was dead and is alive
again. But t broke up more steadily, as I have said.
torm and er to serene and mild her,
from dark and sluggiso brigic ones, is a
memorable crisis w is seemingly
instantaneous at last. Suddenly an influx of light filled my house,
t er still
over, and ty rain. I looked
out terday here lay
transparent pond already calm and full of hope as in a summer
evening, reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none
e
ance, t I had heard for
many a t, for
many a t and powerful song as of yore.
O t the end of a New England summer day! If I
could ever find twig s upon! I mean wig.
t least is not turdus migratorius. tch pines and
s my house, which had so long drooped, suddenly
resumed ters, looked brighter, greener, and more
erect and alive, as if effectually cleansed and restored by the
rain. I kne it rain any more. You may tell by
looking at any t, ay, at your very wood-pile,
er is past or not. As it grew darker, I was
startled by the woods, like
ravellers getting in late from Southern lakes, and indulging
at last in unrestrained complaint and mutual consolation. Standing
at my door, I could bear their wings; when, driving
toh hushed
clamor the
door, and passed my first spring nighe woods.
In tche
mist, sailing in ty rods off, so large
and tumultuous t alden appeared like an artificial pond for
t. But once rose up
flapping of their commander, and
o rank circled about over my y-nine
of teered straigo Canada, h a regular honk
from t intervals, trusting to break t in
muddier pools. A quot;plumpquot; of ducks rose at time and took
te to their noisier cousins.
For a week I he circling, groping clangor of some
solitary goose in ts companion, and
still peopling they
could sustain. In April the pigeons were seen again flying express
in small flocks, and in due time I ins ttering over
my clearing, t seemed t townsained so
many t it could afford me any, and I fancied t they were
peculiarly of t race t d in rees ere we
men came. In almost all climes tortoise and the frog are among
th song
and glancing plumage, and plants spring and bloom, and winds blow,
to correct t oscillation of the
equilibrium of nature.
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in
of spring is like tion of Cosmos out of Che
realization of the Golden Age.--
quot;Eurus ad Auroram Nabat,
Persidaque, et radiis juga subdita matutinis.quot;
quot;t-ind o Aurora and thean kingdom,
And the morning rays.
. . . . . . .
Man ificer of things,
tter world, made he divine seed;
Or t and lately sundered from the high
Etained some seeds of cognate ;
A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So
our prospects brigter ts. e should
be blessed if alook advantage of
every accident t befell us, like the
influence of test de falls on it; and did not spend
our time in atoning for t of past opportunities, which we
call doing our duty. e loiter in er w is already
spring. In a pleasant spring morning all mens sins are forgiven.
Sucruce to vice. to burn,
t sinner may return. through our own recovered innocence
he innocence of our neighbors. You may have known your
neigerday for a t, and
merely pitied or despised the
sun s and spring morning, recreating the
some serene work, and see is
exed and debaucill joy and bless the
nehe innocence of infancy,
and all s are forgotten. t only an atmosphere
of good even a savor of holiness groping for
expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born
instinct, and for a s o no
vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair ss preparing to burst
from ry anotender and fresh
as t plant. Even ered into the joy of his
Lord. leave open his prison doors -- why
t dismis
dismiss ion! It is because t obey t
he pardon which he freely offers
to all.
quot;A return to goodness produced eacranquil and
beneficent breat in respect to the love
of virtue and tred of vice, one approactle the
primitive nature of man, as ts of t which has been
felled. In like manner terval of a
day prevents tues wo spring up again
from developing troys them.
quot;After tue ed many times
from developing t breath of evening
does not suffice to preserve th of evening
does not suffice longer to preserve ture of man
does not differ muc of te. Men seeing ture
of t of te, t he has never
possessed te faculty of reason. Are true and
natural sentiments of man?quot;
quot;t created, w any avenger
Spontaneously laitude.
Punis and fear ; nor ening words read
On suspended brass; nor did t crowd fear
t an avenger.
Not yet ts mountains had descended
to t it might see a foreign world,
And mortals kneheir own.
. . . . . . .
ternal spring, and placid zeph warm
Blasts soot seed.quot;
On the
river near tanding on the quaking
grass and s, ws lurk, I heard a singular
rattling sound, some of ticks which boys play
and
graceful ernately soaring like a ripple
and tumbling a rod or two over and over, she under side of
its he
pearly inside of a s reminded me of falconry and
ry are associated sport. the
Merlin it seemed to me it mig I care not for its
name. It et I nessed. It did
not simply flutter like a butterfly, nor soar like the larger hawks,
but it sported ing
again and again s strange c repeated its free and
beautiful fall, turning over and over like a kite, and then
recovering from its lofty tumbling, as if it its foot
on terra firma. It appeared to he universe --
sporting to need none but the
et played. It lonely, but made all the
eart. s
kindred, and its fatenant of t
seemed related to t by an egg cime in the
crevice of a crag; -- or s native nest made in the angle of a
cloud, rimmings and t sky, and
lined midsummer up from earts eyry
now some cliffy cloud.
Beside t a rare mess of golden and silver and bright
cupreous fisring of jewels. Ah! I have
penetrated to t spring
day, jumping from o to willow
root, whed in so
pure and brig as would hey had
been slumbering in there needs no
stronger proof of immortality. All t live in such a
liging? O Grave, why
victory, then?
Our village life agnate if it for the
unexplored forests and meadoonic
of o imes in marstern and
to smell the
wary fowl
builds , and ts belly close to the
ground. At time t to explore and learn
all t all terious and
unexplorable, t land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and
unfathomable. e can never have enough of
nature. e must be refres of inexible vigor,
vast and titanic features, t s he
s living and its decaying trees, the
ts three weeks and produces
fress. e need to ness our os transgressed, and some
life pasturing freely where we never wander. e are cheered when we
observe ture feeding on ts and
disens us, and deriving rengt.
to my house, which
compelled me sometimes to go out of my
gave me of trong
appetite and inviolable ure ion for
to see t Nature is so rife myriads
can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one
anot tender organizations can be so serenely squas
of existence like pulp -- tadpoles which herons gobble up, and
tortoises and toads run over in t sometimes it has
rained flesy to accident, see
tle account is to be made of it. the impression made on a
of universal innocence. Poison is not poisonous
after all, nor are any al. Compassion is a very untenable
ground. It must be expeditious. Its pleadings bear to be
stereotyped.
Early in May, trees, just
putting out amidst ted a
brigo the landscape, especially in cloudy
days, as if ts and sly
on th of May I
sa h I
he wood
pehrush
long before. t
my door and o see if my house was cavern-like enough for
aining alons, as if
she
sulpche
stones and rotten you could have
collected a barrelful. t;sulp; we bear of.
Even in Calidas drama of Sacontala, ;rills dyed yellow
of tus.quot; And so t rolling
on into summer, as one rambles into higher and higher grass.
t years life in ted; and the
second year o it. I finally left alden September 6th,
1847.