336 
WALDEN. 
better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in 
the present always, and took advantage of every acci¬ 
dent that befell us, like the grass which confesses the in¬ 
fluence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not 
spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past oppor¬ 
tunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in 
winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring 
morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Such a day is a 
truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the 
vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered 
innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. 
You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a 
thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or 
despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun 
shines bright and warm this first spring morning, re¬ 
creating the world, and you meet him at some serene 
work, and see how his exhausted and debauched veins 
expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the 
spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all 
his faults are forgotten. There is not only an atmos¬ 
phere of good will about him, but even a savor of holi¬ 
ness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually 
perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour 
the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see 
some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his 
gnarled rind and try another year’s life, tender and 
fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into 
the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave 
open his prison doors, — why the judge does not dis¬ 
miss his case, — why the preacher does not dismiss his 
congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint 
which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he 
freely offers to all. 
