Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/152

 The reward of the hero is to be remembered,—

A generation comes like a rapid flood, etc.

They move by vast strides,—

When the hero falls, it is still in the midst of peaceful Nature,—

Stretched across a purling rill, etc.

I have heard a painter, who complained of the difficulty of separating the reflection in still water truly, advised to make ripples where he did not want reflections!

These studies and meditations close thus, after Thoreau's return to Concord:

Sunday, January 10, 1844.

I believe that no law of mechanics, which is observed and obeyed from day to day, is better established in the experience of men than this,—that love never fails to be repaid in its own coin; that just as high as the waters rise in one vessel just so high they will rise in every other into which there is [104]