BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOREAU. 21 



the wide pool, and, on examination of the florets, de 

 cided that it had been in flower five days. He drew 

 out of his breast-pocket his diary, and read the names 

 of all the plants that should bloom on this day, 

 whereof he kept account as a banker when his notes 

 fall due. The Cypripedium not due till to-morrow. 

 He thought that, if he waked up from a trance in this 

 swamp, he could tell by the plants what time of the 

 year it was within two days. The redstart was flying 

 about, and presently the fine grosbeaks, whose bril 

 liant scarlet makes &quot; the rash gazer wipe his eye,&quot; 1 

 and whose fine clear note Thoreau compared to that 

 of a tauager which has got rid of its hoarseness. 

 Presently he heard a note which he called that of the 

 night-warbler, a bird he had never identified, had 

 been in search of twelve years, which always, when 

 he saw it, was in the act of diving down into a tree 

 or bush, and which it was vain to seek ; the only bird 

 which sings indifferently by night and by day. I 

 told him he must beware of finding and booking it, 

 lest life should have nothing more to show him. He 

 said, u What you seek in vain for, half your life, one 

 day you come full upon, all the family at dinner. 

 You seek it like a dream, and as soon as you find it 

 you become its prey.&quot; 



His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep 

 in his mind, was connected with Nature, and the 

 meaning of Nature was never attempted to be defined 

 by him. He would not offer a memoir of his observa- 



1 Sweet Rose ! whose hue, angry and brave, 

 Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye : 

 Thy root is ever in its grave, 

 And thou must die. 



Virtue : GEORGE HERBERT. 



