A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - Pennsylvania State ...

These the baits that still allure,
And dragon-fly
That floated by,
May they still endure?
The shadows chased one another swiftly over wood and
meadow, and their alternation harmonized with our mood.
We could distinguish the clouds which cast each one, though
never so high in the heavens. When a shadow flits across the
landscape of the soul, where is the substance? Probably, if we
were wise enough, we should see to what virtue we are indebted
for any happier moment we enjoy. No doubt we have
earned it at some time; for the gifts of Heaven are never
quite gratuitous. The constant abrasion and decay of our
lives makes the soil of our future growth. The wood which
we now mature, when it becomes virgin mould, determines
the character of our second growth, whether that be oaks or
pines. Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his
imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn
which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon,
long at eve. Did you never see it?—But, referred to the sun,
Henry David Thoreau
275
it is widest at its base, which is no greater than his own opacity.
The divine light is diffused almost entirely around us,
and by means of the refraction of light, or else by a certain
self-luminousness, or, as some will have it, transparency, if
we preserve ourselves untarnished, we are able to enlighten
our shaded side. At any rate, our darkest grief has that bronze
color of the moon eclipsed. There is no ill which may not be
dissipated, like the dark, if you let in a stronger light upon it.
Shadows, referred to the source of light, are pyramids whose
bases are never greater than those of the substances which
cast them, but light is a spherical congeries of pyramids, whose
very apexes are the sun itself, and hence the system shines
with uninterrupted light. But if the light we use is but a
paltry and narrow taper, most objects will cast a shadow wider
than themselves.
The places where we had stopped or spent the night in our
way up the river, had already acquired a slight historical interest
for us; for many upward day’s voyaging were unravelled
in this rapid downward passage. When one landed to stretch
his limbs by walking, he soon found himself falling behind
his companion, and was obliged to take advantage of the