Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/89

Rh of religion, is even Druidical. Evelyn is as good as several old Druids, and his &quot;Sylva,&quot; is a new kind of prayer-book, a glorifying of the trees and enjoying them forever, which was the chief end of his life.

A child loves to strike on a tin pan or other ringing vessel with a stick, because its ears being fresh, attentive, and percipient, it detects the finest music in the sound at which all Nature assists. Is not the very cope of the heavens the sounding-board of the infant drummer? So, clear and unprejudiced ears hear the sweetest and most soul-stirring melody in tinkling cowbells and the like (dogs baying the moon), not to be referred to association, but intrinsic in the sound itself; those cheap and simple sounds which men despise because their ears are dull and debauched. Ah, that I were so much a child that I could unfailingly draw music from a quart pot. Its little ears tingle with the melody. To it there is music in sound alone.

Evelyn speaks of mel-dews attracting bees. Can mildew be corrupted from this? He says that the alder laid under water &quot;will harden like a very stone,&quot; and speaks of alders being used &quot;for the draining of grounds by placing them in the trenches,&quot; which I have just seen done here under Clamshell Hill.

Peaches are the principal crop in Lincoln, and