Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/433

Rh And stood over the vast summits of mountains,

And threaded the recesses, penetrating to the foundations of the groves.

Heaven being willing, even on an osier thou mayest sail.

[Thus rhymed by the old translator of Plutarch:

"Were it the will of heaven, an osier bough

Were vessel safe enough the seas to plough."]

Honors and crowns of the tempest-footed

Horses delight one;

Others live in golden chambers;

And some even are pleased traversing securely

The swelling of the sea in a swift ship.

This I will say to thee:

The lot of fair and pleasant things

It behooves to show in public to all the people;

But if any adverse calamity sent from heaven befall

Men, this it becomes to bury in darkness.

Pindar said of the physiologists, that they "plucked the unripe fruit of wisdom."

Pindar said that "hopes were the dreams of those awake."

To Heaven it is possible from black

Night to make arise unspotted light,