Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/220

210 The Lysimachia quadrifolia exhibits its small yellow blossoms now in the wood path.

The Utricularia vulgaris or bladder-wort, a yellow pea-like flower, has blossomed in stagnant pools.

June 22, 1852. 8 Up the Union turnpike. We have had a succession of thunder showers to-day, and at sunset, a rainbow. How moral the world is made! This bow is not utilitarian. Men, I think, are great in proportion as they are moral. After the rain he sets his bow in the heavens! The world is not destitute of beauty. Ask the skeptic who inquires &quot;Cui bono?&quot; why the rainbow was made. While men cultivate flowers below, God cultivates flowers above, he takes charge of the pastures in the heavens. Is not the rainbow a faint vision of God's face? How glorious should be the life of man passed under this arch!

Near the river thus late I hear the peet-weet with white barred wings. The scent of the Balm of Gilead leaves fills the road after the rain. There are the amber skies of evening, the colored skies of both morning and evening. Nature adorns these seasons.

Unquestionable truth is sweet, though it were the announcement of our dissolution.

The fire-flies in the meadows are very numerous, as if they had replenished their lights from