How Animals Talk 



As you emerge from cover of the woods, the pond 

 seems to awaken like a sleeper. See, it returns 

 your gaze, and on its quiet face is a look of surprise 

 that you are here. Enjoy that first awakening 

 look; for there is more of wisdom and pleasure in 

 it, believe me, than in hurrying forth blindly in- 

 tent on making a map or catching a trout, or doing 

 something else that calls for sight to the neglect 

 of insigh.t. All sciences, including chartography 

 and angling, can easily be learned by any man; 

 but understanding is a gift of God, and it comes 

 only to those who keep their hearts open. 



Your own nature is here your best guide, and it 

 shows you a surprising thing: that your old 

 habitual impressions of the world have suddenly 

 become novel and strange, as if this smiling land- 

 scape were but just created, and you were the first 

 to look with seeing eyes upon the glory of it. It 

 tells you, further, if you listen to its voice, that 

 creation is all like this, under necessity to be 

 beautiful, and that the beauty is still as delight- 

 ful as when the evening and the morning were the 

 first day. This dance of water, this rain of light, 

 this shimmer of air, this upspringing of trees, this 

 blue heaven bending over all no artist ever 

 painted such things; no poet ever sang or could 

 sing them. Like a mother's infinite tenderness, 

 they await your appreciation, your silence, yo,ur 



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