The life in us is like the water in the river.
It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it,
and flood the parched uplands; even this may be the eventful year,
which will drown out all our muskrats. It was not always dry land
where we dwell. I see far inland the banks which the stream
anciently washed, before science began to record its freshets.
It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it,
and flood the parched uplands; even this may be the eventful year,
which will drown out all our muskrats. It was not always dry land
where we dwell. I see far inland the banks which the stream
anciently washed, before science began to record its freshets.
... Who does not feel his faith in a resurrection and immortality
strengthened by hearing of this? Who knows what beautiful
and winged life, whose egg had been buried for ages
under many concentric layers of woodenness
in the dead dry life of society, deposited at first in the alburnum
of the green and living tree, which has been gradually converted
into the semblance of its well seasoned tomb - may unexpectedly
come forth from amidst society's most trivial and handseled furniture,
to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!
strengthened by hearing of this? Who knows what beautiful
and winged life, whose egg had been buried for ages
under many concentric layers of woodenness
in the dead dry life of society, deposited at first in the alburnum
of the green and living tree, which has been gradually converted
into the semblance of its well seasoned tomb - may unexpectedly
come forth from amidst society's most trivial and handseled furniture,
to enjoy its perfect summer life at last!
~ Henry David Thoreau
from Walden, "Conclusion," 1854
art by Roderick Maclver
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