.
I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature,
which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.
It is not indifferent to us and which way we walk.
There is a right way; but we are very liable from heedlessness
and stupidity to take the wrong one. We would fain take that walk,
never yet taken by us through this actual world, which is perfectly
symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior
and ideal world; and sometimes, no doubt, we find it difficult
to choose our direction, because it does not yet
exist distinctly in our ideas.
.
~ Henry David Thoreau
from Walking, 1863