The Blog of Henry David Thoreau: excited by the smell...Thoreau's Journal: 25-Sep-1851

9.25.2014

excited by the smell
...Thoreau's Journal: 25-Sep-1851

Some men are excited by the smell of burning powder, but I thought in my dream last night how much saner to be excited by the smell of new bread.

2 comments:

Beth W. said...: Yes. There is an hour in the morning when the smell of the earth reminds me of fresh-baked bread. It is when the dew and sunshine combine to steam the surface of the woods, distiling the various elements into a complex, sweet fragrance.; Oct 1, 2009, 5:32:00 PM
michael jameson said...: lovely beth ! why cant the news tell us of good events such as living and nature, baked bread! why, because war and death sells !! it excites us! as long as it doesnt involve them?! what do these listeners truly think of themselves? millions watch the news, find one that will say i get off on death and torture and evil doings! everybody lies !!!! Give me a tree and a river! michael jameson oldantiqueguy@hotmail.com; Sep 25, 2010, 4:08:00 PM

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one of the native forces

“Thoreau was a surprising fellow—he is not easily grasped—is elusive: yet he is one of the native forces—stands for a fact, a movement, an upheaval: Thoreau belongs to America, to the transcendental, to the protesters: then he is an outdoor man: all outdoor men everything else being equal appeal to me. Thoreau was not so precious, tender, a personality as Emerson: but he was a force—he looms up bigger and bigger: his dying does not seem to have hurt him a bit: every year has added to his fame.”

~Walt Whitman as recorded by Horace Traubel

the simple print

The text is from The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, ed. Bradford Torrey and Francis Allen, 14 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1906).

Each blog post is an excerpt from that day's entry in the Journal, and although not necessarily the complete entry, it is an integral and intact section thereof.

"It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own.... One must submit abjectly to such a guide, and the reward was great." -Emerson