Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/106

 Consider the evening stealing over the fields. The stars come to bathe in retired waters; the shadows of the trees creeping farther and farther into the meadows, and a myriad phenomena beside. Nature supplies inexhaustible means by the most frugal methods. Having carefully determined the extent of her charity, she establishes it forever; her almsgiving is an annuity. She supplies to the bee only so much wax as is necessary for its cell, so that no poverty could stint it more; but the little economist which fed the Evangelist in the desert still keeps in advance of the immigrant, and fills the cavities of the forest for his repast.

It is wholesome to contemplate the natural laws,—gravity, heat, light, moisture, dryness. Though to the indifferent and casual observer the laws of Nature are mere science, to the enlightened and spiritual they are not only facts, but deeds,—the purest morality, or modes of divine life. Science must have love and reverence and imagination for her pioneers and counsellors, as well as ants, or sturdy and patient husbandmen, to complete and fence and settle her clearings. [58]