Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/126

 more general influence than he can ever dream of. We may count our steps, but we must not count our breaths. We must be careful not to mix consciousness with the vital functions.

May the gods deliver us from too critical an age,—when cross-eyed, near-sighted men are born, who, instead of looking out and bathing their eyes in the deep heaven, introvert them, and think to walk erect and not to stumble by watching their feet, and not by preserving pure hearts.

Saturday, October 14.

What an impulse was given, some time or other, to the principle of vegetation that now nothing can stay it! I understand why one said he thought he could write an epic to be called The Leaf. What is a leaf, and how much does it cover? In the veins and fibres of the leaf see the future tree,—the grove. It is the print of Nature's footstep,—this form. See how Nature works and produces leaves. It is her symbol, her standard, emblem, device; where she has been she leaves her patterns. Whether in [78]