New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1848-11-18
The SOUL OF HE WILDERNESS

a.
Perhaps I most fully realized that this was pr
meval untamed and forever untamable Notureor
whatever else men call It, while coming down TINS
part of the mountain. We were passing over
Burnt Lands burnt by lightning, pefchance'
though they showed no recent marks OF hre nara
ly 50 much as a charrcd stump, but looked rather
Ike A natural pasture for the moose and deer eN
ceedngiy wild aud desolate, with occasional
strips OF timber crossing them, and io" popiafs
springing up and patches OF bueberres mere ana
there found myself traversng them JANUARY
ike some pasture run to waste, or paruaAy re-
claimed bv man but when / reflected what man
what brother or sister or klnsman oil our race
made il or claimed IT, expected the ProPr. eter 70
rise up and dispute my passage. Il IS dlhicut 70
conceive OF region uninhabited by man we
habituauy presume bis presence aud influence
everywhere. And yet We have not seen pure
Nature unless we have seen her thus vast, ana
drear and inhuman, though IN the midst Of cltles'
Nature was here something savage and a"Iu''
though beautiful | looked with awe al the
ground I trod on % see what the Powers had
made there. the form and fashion aud material OF
their work This was that Earth OF winch we
have heard. made Out Of Chaos and Oh Nlsut
Here was no mans garden, but the unAandseied
globe IL was not lawn. nor pasture nor mead
nor woodland nor lea, nor arabic, nor waste land.
IL was the fresh and natural surface OF the planet
Earth. as il was made forever and eyer-to be
the dwelling OF Man. we ssy-sO Nature made
II and Man NAV sc . If be can. Man as not
% be associated with l. II was MatIer vast,
terri6c-uot his Mother Earth that We have heard
NJ NOT for him 10 tread on. or be buried la-no,
II we're being too familiar 70 let his bones lie
tbers-tbe home this OF Necessity aud ( ate.
There was there ielt the presence Of force not
bound % be kind 70 Man. IL was place for
besthenism and supers.itious rltes-to be lnhabit-
al b, men nearer OF kn = the rocks and 70 Wild
animals than We We walked over It with
certain awe, stopping from time 70 time 10 PicA
the blueberrles which grew there, and had smart
s,d snic, taste Perchance where our wild pines
stsnd and leaves lie on their forest floor IN Con-
80 ,here were once respers. and husbandmen
oIsnted grsin but here not even the surface had
bs.n scared by man. bat IL was a specimen OF
vyha. God cav tt 70 make this world What IS u
IN bs admitted 70 a museum, % see myriad OF
osrticuIsr things compared with being shown
some stars surface. some hard matter in rs home
.ts,S in awe Of nv body. this matter 70 which
an, bo,,d mas bacouie s. strange o me. fear
-, sn;-5,s rbos,s of which | am one-fhG' nay
"a, r,igbt-but fear bodies, tremble % meet
them. What 5 this Titan that has possession o.
me- Talk of mysteries Think OF our life ln Va
,u~saail, u be- shown matter, 20 come In contact
With ir-r5cks trees. wind on our cheeks the
.oflf earth the actual world. the common sense Z.
Contact Contact Wa0 are we rhers are Ne
We take leave Of Mr. THoREAr's narrative BY
quoting its splendid concla'iOn-ss fine piece ct
uurbvued poetry as we have ever read;
rHE sew WORLD
What. most striking in the Maine wilderness
IL ,hs continuousness OF the forest, with fewer
- - -. - -lades than Won mad imagined.