The Nature Books of Henry David Thoreau – 6 Titles in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Henry David Thoreau

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СКАЧАТЬ his day; perhaps has fallen into a horse-pond, eaten fresh-water clams, or worn one shirt for a week without washing. Indeed, you cannot receive a shock unless you have an electric affinity for that which shocks you. Use me, then, for I am useful in my way, and stand as one of many petitioners, from toadstool and henbane up to dahlia and violet, supplicating to be put to my use, if by any means ye may find me serviceable; whether for a medicated drink or bath, as balm and lavender; or for fragrance, as verbena and geranium; or for sight, as cactus; or for thoughts, as pansy. These humbler, at least, if not those higher uses.

      Ah, my dear Strangers and Enemies, I would not forget you. I can well afford to welcome you. Let me subscribe myself Yours ever and truly,—your much obliged servant. We have nothing to fear from our foes; God keeps a standing army for that service; but we have no ally against our Friends, those ruthless Vandals.

      Once more to one and all,

      "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers."

      Let such pure hate still underprop

       Our love, that we may be

       Each other's conscience.

       And have our sympathy

       Mainly from thence.

      We'll one another treat like gods,

       And all the faith we have

       In virtue and in truth, bestow

       On either, and suspicion leave

       To gods below.

      Two solitary stars,—

       Unmeasured systems far

       Between us roll,

       But by our conscious light we are

       Determined to one pole.

      What need confound the sphere,—

       Love can afford to wait,

       For it no hour's too late

       That witnesseth one duty's end,

       Or to another doth beginning lend.

      It will subserve no use,

       More than the tints of flowers,

       Only the independent guest

       Frequents its bowers,

       Inherits its bequest.

      No speech though kind has it,

       But kinder silence doles

       Unto its mates,

       By night consoles,

       By day congratulates.

      What saith the tongue to tongue?

       What heareth ear of ear?

       By the decrees of fate

       From year to year,

       Does it communicate.

      Pathless the gulf of feeling yawns,—

       No trivial bridge of words,

       Or arch of boldest span,

       Can leap the moat that girds

       The sincere man.

      No show of bolts and bars

       Can keep the foeman out,

       Or 'scape his secret mine

       Who entered with the doubt

       That drew the line.

      No warder at the gate

       Can let the friendly in,

       But, like the sun, o'er all

       He will the castle win,

       And shine along the wall.

      There's nothing in the world I know

       That can escape from love,

       For every depth it goes below,

       And every height above.

      It waits as waits the sky,

       Until the clouds go by,

       Yet shines serenely on

       With an eternal day,

       Alike when they are gone,

       And when they stay.

      Implacable is Love,—

       Foes may be bought or teased

       From their hostile intent,

       But he goes unappeased

       Who is on kindness bent.

      Having rowed five or six miles above Amoskeag before sunset, and reached a pleasant part of the river, one of us landed to look for a farm-house, where we might replenish our stores, while the other remained cruising about the stream, and exploring the opposite shores to find a suitable harbor for the night. In the mean while the canal-boats began to come round a point in our rear, poling their way along close to the shore, the breeze having quite died away. This time there was no offer of assistance, but one of the boatmen only called out to say, as the truest revenge for having been the losers in the race, that he had seen a wood-duck, which we had scared up, sitting on a tall white-pine, half a mile down stream; and he repeated the assertion several times, and seemed really chagrined at the apparent suspicion with which this information was received. But there sat the summer duck still, undisturbed by us.

      By and by the other voyageur returned from his inland expedition, bringing one of the natives with him, a little flaxen-headed boy, with some tradition, or small edition, of Robinson Crusoe in his head, who had been charmed by the account of our adventures, and asked his father's leave to join us. He examined, at first from the top of the bank, our boat and furniture, with sparkling eyes, and wished himself already his own man. He was a lively and interesting boy, and we should have been glad to ship him; but Nathan was still his father's boy, and had not come to years of discretion.

      We had got a loaf of home-made bread, and musk and water melons for dessert. For this farmer, a clever and well-disposed man, cultivated a large patch of melons for the Hooksett and Concord markets. He hospitably entertained us the next day, exhibiting his hop-fields and kiln and melon-patch, warning us to step over the tight rope which surrounded the latter at a foot from the ground, while he pointed to a little bower at one corner, where it connected with the lock of a gun ranging with the line, and where, as he informed us, he sometimes sat in pleasant nights to defend his premises against thieves. We stepped high over the line, and sympathized with our host's on the whole quite human, if not humane, interest in the success of his experiment. That night especially thieves were to be expected, from rumors in the atmosphere, and the priming was not wet. He was a Methodist man, who had his dwelling between СКАЧАТЬ