6.10.2014

through a spyglass
...Thoreau's Journal: 10-Jun-1853

By the way, I amused myself yesterday afternoon with looking from my window, through a spyglass, at the tops of the woods in the horizon. It was pleasant to bring them so near and individualize the trees, to examine in detail the tree-tops which before you had beheld only in the mass as the woods in the horizon. It was an exceedingly rich border, seen thus against, and the imperfections in a particular tree-top more than two miles off were quite apparent. I could easily have seen a hawk sailing over the top of the wood, and possibly his nest in some higher tree. Thus to contemplate, from my attic in the village, the hawks circling about their nests above some dense forest or swamp miles away, almost as if they were flies on my own premises!

1 comment:

michael jameson said...

still drawn to nature by stepping outside of it!,sometimes the best observations are made from the outside looking in! in any situation!,even with a great love for something, if you can step out and look at both sides your understanding will be of two perspectives !, that will once again give you another skill!. oldantiqueguy@hotmail.com