Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/263

 JBT.SO.] LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. 239

set paints the western skies. It is the same dai- mon, here lurking under a human eyelid, and there under the closing eyelids of the day. Here, in small compass, is the ancient and natu ral beauty of evening and morning. What lov ing astronomer has ever fathomed the ethereal depths of the eye ?

The maiden conceals a fairer flower and sweeter fruit than any calyx in the field ; and, if she goes with averted face, confiding in her purity and high resolves, she will make the heav ens retrospective, and all nature humbly con fess its queen.

Under the influence of this sentiment, man is a string of an ^Eolian harp, which vibrates with the zephyrs of the eternal morning.

There is at first thought something trivial in the commonness of love. So many Indian youths and maidens along these banks have in ages past yielded to the influence of this great civilizer. Nevertheless, this generation is not disgusted nor discouraged, for love is no indi vidual s experience ; and though we are imper fect mediums, it does not partake of our imper fection ; though we are finite, it is infinite and eternal ; and the same divine influence broods over these banks, whatever race may inhabit them, and perchance still would, even if the hu man race did not dwell here.