216 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
other? When I think what were the various 
sounds and notes, the migrations and works, and 
changes of fur and plumage which ushered in 
the spring, and marked the other seasons of the 
year, I am reminded that this my life in nature, 
this particular round of natural phenomena 
which I call a year, is lamentably incomplete. 
I listen to a concert in which so many parts are 
wanting. The whole civilized country is, to 
some extent, turned into a city, and I am that 
citizen whom I pity. Many of those animal 
migrations and other phenomena by which the 
Indians marked the season are no longer to be 
observed. I seek acquaintance with nature to 
know her moods and manners. Primitive na¬ 
ture is the most interesting to me. I take in¬ 
finite pains to know all the phenomena of the 
spring, for instance, thinking that I have here 
the entire poem, and then, to my chagrin, I 
learn that it is but an imperfect copy that I 
possess and have read, that my ancestors have 
torn out many of the first leaves and grandest 
passages, and mutilated it in many places. I 
should not like to think that some demigod had 
come before me and picked out some of the best 
of the stars. I wish to know an entire heaven 
and an entire earth. All the great trees and 
beasts, fishes and fowl are gone; the streams 
perchance are somewhat shrunk. 
