186 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
this was a phenomenon adequate to my circumstances 
and expectation, and it put me on the alert to see more 
like it. I exulted like u a pagan suckled in a creed ” that 
had never been worn at all, but was bran new, and ade- 
quate to the occasion. I let science slide, and rejoiced 
in that light as if it had been a fellow-creature. I saw 
that it was excellent, and was very glad to know that it 
was so cheap. A scientific explanation , as it is called, 
would have been altogether out of place there. That is 
for pale daylight. Science with its retorts would have 
put me to sleep ; it was the opportunity to be ignorant 
that I improved. It suggested to me that there was 
something to be seen if one had eyes. It made a be¬ 
liever of me more than before. I believed that the 
woods were not tenantless, but choke-full of honest spir¬ 
its as good as myself any day, — not an empty chamber, 
in which chemistry was left to work alone, but an inhab¬ 
ited house, — and for a few moments I enjoyed fellowship 
with them. Your so-called wise man goes trying to per¬ 
suade himself that there is no entity there but himself 
and his traps, but it is a great deal easier to believe the 
truth. It suggested, too, that the same experience al¬ 
ways gives birth to the same sort of belief or religion. 
One revelation has been made to the Indian, another to 
the white man. I have much to learn of the Indian, 
nothing of the missionary. I am not sure but all that 
would tempt me to teach the Indian my religion would 
be his promise to teach me his . Long enough I.had 
heard of irrelevant things; now at length I was glad to 
make acquaintance with the light that dwells in rotten 
wood. Where is all your knowledge gone to ? It evap¬ 
orates completely, for it has no depth. 
I kept those little chips and wet them again the next 
night, but they emitted no light. 
