To-day it snows again, covering the ground. To get the value of the storm we must be out a long time and travel far in it, so that it may fairly penetrate our skin, and we be as it were turned inside out to it, and there be no part in us but is wet or weather beaten, - so that we become storm men instead of fair weather men.
The snow finally turns to a drenching rain.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 28, 1852
We must be out a long time and travel far in it, so that it may fairly penetrate our skin, and we become storm men. See December 25, 1856 ("Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”); March 8, 1859 ("If the weather is thick and stormy enough, if there is a good chance to be cold and wet and uncomfortable, in other words to feel weather-beaten, you may consume the afternoon to advantage thus browsing along the edge of some near wood which would scarcely detain you at all in fair weather, and you will be as far away there as at the end of your longest fair-weather walk, and come home as if from an adventure.")
Feb. 28. To - day it snows again , covering the ground . To get the value of the storm we must be out a long time and travel far in it , so that it may fairly pene trate our skin , and we be as it were turned inside out to it , and there be no part in us but is wet or weather beaten , so that we become storm men instead of fair weather men . Some men speak of having been wetted to the skin once as a memorable event in their lives , which , notwithstanding the croakers , they survived . The snow is finally turned to a drenching rain .
No comments:
Post a Comment