A BIRD-GAZER AT THE CANON 



point of view not taken, a phase of modest beauty 

 imperfectly appreciated. Thoreau himself, it is 

 safe to assert, did not make the most of Concord. 

 And after that what hope is there for the rest of 

 us.? Of course, then, the bird-gazer did not make 

 the most of the Grand Canon. How could he, 

 with the little time at his disposal, the unfavor- 

 able season, the exceptionally inclement weather 

 of the latter half of his stay (it was twelve de- 

 grees below zero on the last morning, and his 

 farewell communings were nothing like so lei- 

 surely as he could have wished), and, chiefest of 

 all, the peculiar limitations of his own nature ? 



No doubt he might have used words about it, — 

 there is many a fine adjective in the dictionary ; 

 but adjectives of themselves prove nothing, 

 unless it be, too often, their user's imbecility. 

 "Is n't it pretty.?" he heard a lady ask; and, 

 since he was not addressed, he did not reply, as 

 it was on his tongue's end to do, " No, my dear 

 madam, it is noi pretty." On another occasion a 

 man pronounced it "a right nice view," ^ and 



1 It was something to his credit that he did n't say " awfully 

 nice," a locution which at this minute the bird-gazer hears 

 from the lips of a lady of his acquaintance. She knows better, 

 no doubt, but cannot help following the fashion in the use of 

 words more than in the purchase of hats, though hats and 

 words be alike barbarous. 



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