in Thoreau’s Journal:
For the first time I perceive this spring that the year is a circle— I see distinctly the spring arc thus far. It is drawn with a firm line…
Why should just these sights & sounds accompany our life? Why should I hear the chattering of blackbirds—why smell the skunk each year? I would fain explore the mysterious relation between myself & these things. I would at least know what these things unavoidably are- —make a chart of our life & when—know why just this circle of creatures completes the world. Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature—make a day to bring forth something new?
As Cawley loved a garden, so I a forest.
Observe all kinds of coincidences—as what kinds of birds come with what flowers.
An East Wind, I hear the clock strike plainly 10 or 11 PM.
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Thought for April 18, 2016: The 2,000,000 words of his Journal are like a very long hike during which the reader must ask questions (as in the above) in order to keep awake to her/his surroundings. Then, just as we can excerpt from the Journal every day, we can remember those aspects of our hike and assemble them for particular and new purposes.
