Thoreau, from Walden:
The art of spending a day! If it is possible that we may be addressed, it behooves us to be attentive. If by watching all day and all night, I may detect some trace of the Ineffable, then will it not be worth the while to watch? Watch and pray without ceasing? .
I am convinced that men are not well employed—that this is not the way to spend a day. If by patience, if by watching I can secure one new ray of light, can feel myself elevated for an instant upon Pisgah, the world which was dead prose to me become living and divine, shall I not watch ever—shall I not be a watchman henceforth? If by watching a whole year on the city's walls I may obtain a communication from heaven, shall I not do well to shut up my shop and turn a watchman? Can a youth, a man, do more wisely than to go where his life is to be found? As if I had suffered that to be rumor which may be verified. We are surrounded by a rich and fertile mystery. May we not probe it, pry into it, employ ourselves about it—a little? To devote your life to the discovery of the divinity in Nature or to the eating of oysters: would they not be attended with very different results? . . .
To watch for, describe, all the divine features which I detect in Nature.
My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature—to know his lurking places.
3 comments:
Did someone get a new bong?
TBLMISBT
Thoreau probably used a hollowed-out apple.
I believe it rained hard and often at walden that summer. With those damp conditions the mushroom crop was outstanding. Why smoke when you can eat!
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