Page:Early Spring in Massachusetts (1881).djvu/91

Rh hear the well-known note and see a flock of Fringilla hiemalis, flitting in a lively manner about trees, weeds, walls, and ground by the roadside, showing their two white tail feathers. They are more fearless than the song-sparrow. They attract notice by their numbers and incessant twittering in a social manner. The linarias have been the most numerous birds here the past winter. I can scarcely see a heel of a snow drift from my window. Jonas Melvin says he saw hundreds of “speckled” turtles out on the banks to-day in a voyage to Billerica for musquash. Also saw gulls. Sheldrakes and black ducks are the only ones he has seen this year. A still and mild moonlight night, and people walking about the streets.

March 7, 1838. We should not endeavor coolly to analyze our thoughts, but, keeping the pen even and parallel with the current, make an accurate transcript of them. Impulse is, after all, the best linguist; its logic, if not conformable to Aristotle, cannot fail to be most convincing. The nearer we can approach to a complete but simple transcript of our thought, the more tolerable will be the piece, for we can endure to consider ourselves in a state of passivity or in involuntary action, but rarely can we endure to consider our efforts, and least of all, our rare efforts.