Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/34

 marching on his post. His heart will sharpen and attune his ear, and he will never take a false step, even in the most arduous circumstances; for then the music will swell into corresponding sweetness and volume, and rule the movement it inspired.

"One music seems to be superior to another chiefly in its more perfect time, to use this word in a liberal sense. In its steadiness and equanimity lies its divinity. Music is the sound of the universal laws promulgated. It is the only assured tone. When men attain to speak with as settled a faith, and as firm assurance, their voices will ring and their feet march as the hero's. I feel a sad cheer when I hear these lofty strains, because there must be something in me as lofty that hears. But ah, I hear them not always! The clear morning notes seem to come through a veil of sadness to me; for possibly they are only the echo which my life makes.

These cadences plainly proceed out of a very deep meaning, and a sustained soul. They [xxvi]