Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/268

258 underside is a particularly pale, hoary green. It is somewhat greener above, with a slightly purplish brown border on the front edge of its front wings, and a brown, yellowish, and whitish eye-spot in the middle of each wing. It is very sluggish, and allows me to turn it over and cover it up with another leaf, sleeping till the night comes. It has more relation to the moon by its pale, hoary green color, and its sluggishness by day, than by the form of its tail.

June 28, 1840. The profane never hear music; the holy ever hear it. It is God's voice, the divine breath audible. Where it is heard, there is a Sabbath. It is omnipotent. All things obey it, as they obey virtue. It is the herald of virtue. It passes by sorrow, for grief hangs its harp on the willows.

June 28, 1854. Tall anemone. Pontederia to-morrow.

June 28, 1857. I hear on all hands these days, from the elms and other trees, the twittering peep of young golden robins which have recently left their nests, and apparently indicate their locality to their parents by thus incessantly peeping all day long.

June 28, 1860. I meet to-day with a wood-tortoise which is eating the leaves of the early potentillas, and soon after another deliberately eating sorrel. It was evidently