The snow has been slowly melting, without rain or mist, the last two or three days. It has settled very much, though the eaves have not been heard to run by me. In going across lots, I walk in the woods, where the snow is not so deep, part having been caught in the trees and dissipated in the air, and a part melted by the warmth of the wood and the reflection.
The poison sumach, with its stems hanging down on every side, is a very agreeable object now, seen against the snow.
I do not know but thoughts written down thus in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage than if the related ones were brought together into separate essays. They are now allied to life, and are seen by the reader not to be far-fetched. It is more simple, less artful. I feel that in the other case I should have no proper frame for my sketches. Mere facts and names and dates communicate more than we suspect. Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet our feet to get it! Is the scholastic air any advantage?
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 27, 1852
I do not know but thoughts written down in a journal might be printed in the same form with greater advantage than if the related ones were brought together into separate essays.
They are now allied to life, more simple, less artful. Mere facts and names and dates communicate more than we suspect.
Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet our feet to get it!
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