EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 17 
law is in one sense lawless. That is an' unfor¬ 
tunate discovery, certainly, that of a law which 
binds us where we did not know that we were 
bound. Live free, child of the mist. He for 
whom the law is made, who does not obey the 
law, but whom the law obeys, reclines on pil¬ 
lows of down, and is wafted at will whither he 
pleases ; for man is superior to all laws, both of 
heaven and earth, when he takes his liberty. 
February 27, 1852. The main river is not 
yet open except in very few places, but the 
north branch, which is so much more rapid, is 
open near Tarbell’s and Harrington’s, where I 
walked to-day, and flowing with full tide, bor¬ 
dered with ice on either side, sparkles in the 
clear, cool air, — a silvery sparkle as from a 
stream that would not soil the sky.We 
have almost completely forgotten the summer. 
This restless and now swollen stream has burst 
its icy fetters, and as I stand looking up it west¬ 
ward for half a mile, where it winds slightly 
under a high bank, its surface is lit up here and 
there with a fine-grained silvery sparkle which 
makes the river appear something celestial, 
more than a terrestrial river, which might have 
suggested that one surrounding the shield in 
Homer. If rivers come out of their prison 
thus bright and immortal, shall not I, too, re¬ 
sume my spring life with joy and hope. Have 
