22 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
sheldrake which so reflects the light as to look 
larger than it is, the bird steadily sailing this 
way and that with its companion who is diving 
from time to time. They have chosen the 
opening farthest removed from all shores. As 
I look I see the ice drifting in upon them and 
contracting the water, till finally they have but 
a few square rods left, while there are forty or 
fifty acres near by. This is the first bird of the 
spring that I have seen or heard of. 
February 28, 1841. Nothing goes by luck in 
composition ; it allows of no trick. The best 
you can write will be the best you are. Every 
sentence is the result of a long probation. The 
author’s character is read from title page to 
end. Of this he never corrects the proofs. We 
read it as the essential character of a hand¬ 
writing without regard to the flourishes. And 
so of the rest of our actions. It runs as straight 
as a ruled line through them all, no matter 
how many curvets about it. Our whole life is 
taxed for the least thing well done. It is its 
met result. How we eat, drink, sleep, and use 
our desultory hours now in these indifferent 
days, with no eye to observe and no occasion to 
excite us, determines our authority and capaci¬ 
ty for the time to come. 
February 28, 1852. To-day it snows again, 
covering the ground. To get the value of the 
