Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-03-27
NATURE IN SPRING.

The advent of spring brings to most
hearts joy, and to those who are heavy
laden a renewed strength, more elastic
step, a more cheerful view of days forever
darkened. How beautiful it is to see the
spring with its birds and flowers, its warm,
sunny days, followed by cool and life
renewing nights, replacing the cold and
dreary days of the long and dreaded winter.
OF this season no one has written more.
charmingly and minutely than Thoreau,
in that incompatible work of his entitled,
Walden. Behold what he says of the
seasons. 1.-The day is an epi-
tome of the year. The night
is the winter, the morning and evening
are the spring and fall, and noon is the
summer" Have the divisions of the
year been better described than by this
illustration of the day? When does man
SO feel the power and beauty of nature as
in the early morn of the early spring?
'In pleasant spring morning all mems
sins are forgiven" God, through his
agent spring, having given to all pardon
for sin, why cannot man make his life
continual spring morning, forgiving past.
sins and no more committing them?
Is it that there can be a spring of
forgiveness only after a winter of
sin and regret? All! what care
we now for such questions for whose So
luton philosophers so long have sought?
To answer such questions is a vain at
tempt and could but break the spell of
springs enchantment.
But Thoreau loved not spring alone, for
he found throughout all nature and in all
seasons, things lovable that were en-
deared to him by the associations which
he himself had made. Open his book
where you will there will be found some
fine thought, something on which to pom
der and dwell. Why did he 60 to the
woods and find society in the midst of tall
and signing trees on the borders of deep
and silent pond? Did he 60 because, as
Byron said, he "loved not man the less,
but nature more ?" Let him answer, and
we may do we'll to follow: 81 went to the
woods because l wished to live deliber-
ately; to front only the essential facts of
life, and see if / could not learn what it
had to teach, and not, when | came to
die, discover that had not lived" Has
any one a desire to know what was the
mode of that life, what were its results,
and what did it teach? Then go to his
book, and there can be seen all the de-
tails, the work of each day, the thought
of each day; in fact there will be seen the
poets life developed on the philosophers
plan. His wants were as few as Dioge-
nes', and his economy almost. as great.
His whole life at Walden was a dedica-
ton to nature, and he found in her a
friend and teacher that Concord trans
cendent3lism could neither give nor COM
prehend. Did man ever have more
genial company than Thoreau had on his
book shelves? In his small house
he kept but three chairs, one
for use, two for friendship and
three for company; if his company ex-
ceeded that number, they stood around
his room as people do in the presence OF
royalty they were veritable peripatetic
philosophers. 1t is doubtful if Thoreau
enjoyed this human society as much as
he did that which he found in the forest;
and to listen to the song of the wood
thrush was more pleasing to him than
the finest concertssgiven by the greatest
artists. In bis rambles through the woods
he would often sit and idle
away long morning enjoying
the solitude, thinking of the
folly of man in his busy life, striving to
gain a competence that he might rest
in the declining years of. his existance,
while he, Thoreau, had found that goal
and ceased that strife. Even the life at
Walden was to cease, and Thoreau quit
ted it having gained the knowledge he
wished, but never again did he have the
quiet and calm which he there left.