314 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
that you would tliiuk music was being born 
again as in the days of Orpheus. Orpheus and 
Apollo are certainly-there taking lessons; aye, 
and the jay and the blackbird, too, learn now 
where they stole their u thunder.” They are, 
perforce, silent, meditating new strains. 
When the playful breeze drops on the pool, 
it springs to right and left quick as a kitten 
playing with dead leaves, clapping her paw 
on them. .... These ripple lakes lie now in 
the midst of mostly bare brown or tawny dry 
woodlands, themselves the most living objects. 
They may say to the first woodland flowers, We 
played with the north winds here before you 
were born. 
April 10, 1841. How much virtue there is in 
simply seeing. We may almost say that the 
hero has striven in vain for his preeminency, if 
the student oversees him. The woman who 
sits in the house and sees is a match for a stir¬ 
ring captain. Those still piercing eyes, as faith¬ 
fully exercised as their talent, will keep her 
even with Alexander or Shakespeare. They 
may go to Asia with parade, or to fairyland, 
but not beyond her ray. We are as much as 
we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The 
hands only serve the eyes. The farthest blue 
streak in the horizon I can see, I may reach be¬ 
fore many sunsets. What I saw alters not. In 
