Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/133

 earthly particle, or ray of light? Is not here the true anatomy, where we study our own elements and composition? Why should man love the sunflower, and the color of the walls and trees?

Thursday, November 2.

I believe that there is an ideal or real Nature, infinitely more perfect than the actual, as there is an ideal life of man; else where are the glorious summers which in vision sometimes visit my brain? When Nature ceases to be supernatural to a man, what will he do then? Of what worth is human life if its actions are no longer to have this sublime and unexplored scenery? Who will build a cottage and dwell in it with enthusiasm if not in the Elysian fields?

Saturday, November 4.

We must look to the West for the growth of a new literature, manners, architecture, etc. Already there is more language there, which is the growth of the soil, than here; good Greekish words there are in abundance,—good because necessary and expressive; "diggings," for instance. If you analyze a [85]