Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/327

Rh to the listening soul, filled with true love for nature, she would utter her messages of religious truth and contentment. "God did not make this world in jest, no, nor in indifference. Those migratory swallows all bear messages that concern my life." Thoreau experienced the disappointments of friendship, he was often confronted by vexing problems in the affairs of men and nations, wherein he failed to recognize the causes of such tortuous events; from such personal and philosophic queries of doubt and despair, he turned always to nature, to find there with King Arthur, the mingled regret and relief,—