A man must attend to Nature closely for many years to know when, as well as where, to look for his objects, since he must always anticipate her a little.
Young men have not learned the phases of Nature; they do not know what constitutes a year, or that one year is like another.
I would know when in the year to expect certain thoughts and moods, as the sportsman knows when to look for plover.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 24, 1859
...what constitutes a year. See April 18, 1852 ("For the first time I perceive this spring that the year is a circle"); May 5, 1860 ("It takes us many years to find out that Nature repeats herself annually")
..when to expect certain thoughts and moods. See April 18, 1852 ("Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature, make a day to bring forth something new?"); May 23, 1853 ("The poet must bring to Nature the smooth mirror in which she is to be reflected. Every new flower that opens, no doubt, expresses a new mood of the human mind."); September 2, 1856 (" I think we may detect that some sort of prepartion and faint expectation preceded every discovery we have made."); .June 6, 1857 ("Each annual phenomenon is a reminiscence and prompting."); October 26, 1857 (After a while I learn what my moods and seasons are . . . The perfect correspondence of Nature to man, so that he is at home in her"") April 24, 1859 (" There is a season for everything, and we do not notice a given phenomenon except at that season, if, indeed, it can be called the same phenomenon at any other season. There is a time to watch the ripples on Ripple Lake, to look for arrowheads, to study the rocks and lichens, a time to walk on sandy deserts; and the observer of nature must improve these seasons...The moods and thoughts of man are revolving just as steadily and incessantly as nature's.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau Moods and Seasons of the Mind.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 24, 1859
...what constitutes a year. See April 18, 1852 ("For the first time I perceive this spring that the year is a circle"); May 5, 1860 ("It takes us many years to find out that Nature repeats herself annually")
..when to expect certain thoughts and moods. See April 18, 1852 ("Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature, make a day to bring forth something new?"); May 23, 1853 ("The poet must bring to Nature the smooth mirror in which she is to be reflected. Every new flower that opens, no doubt, expresses a new mood of the human mind."); September 2, 1856 (" I think we may detect that some sort of prepartion and faint expectation preceded every discovery we have made."); .June 6, 1857 ("Each annual phenomenon is a reminiscence and prompting."); October 26, 1857 (After a while I learn what my moods and seasons are . . . The perfect correspondence of Nature to man, so that he is at home in her"") April 24, 1859 (" There is a season for everything, and we do not notice a given phenomenon except at that season, if, indeed, it can be called the same phenomenon at any other season. There is a time to watch the ripples on Ripple Lake, to look for arrowheads, to study the rocks and lichens, a time to walk on sandy deserts; and the observer of nature must improve these seasons...The moods and thoughts of man are revolving just as steadily and incessantly as nature's.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau Moods and Seasons of the Mind.
I seek acquaintance with Nature, —
to know her moods and manners.
March 23, 1856
We must learn to reawaken
and keep ourselves awake,
by an infinite expectation of the dawn
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