Fast and furious as is the torrent of Swift River, its beginning is in the heavens, and as long as the noble forests cloak the hills and guard the springs, so long will its current be sustained by fresh supplies of moisture drawn from the distant sea. This human current, coursing into and through the city, draws a part of its strength from the hills. All our New England uplands are draining their youth and strength into the cities, but the ocean which these life-streams reach gives back no gentle, purified life to fill the mountain farms. It takes all, pollutes much, but yields nothing in return.
A deep-toned bell in the Old North Church spoke to the foggy night. Answering voices came from a dozen belfries. They seemed to call in review the long year now drawing to its close. Years are as days to them in their high places far above the human stream, but years are very real to us who can count so few of them before we reach that wide Ocean towards which our stream flows. The flower has a day for its year, the gnat an hour. What a mighty harvest Death has reaped since this year began; yet no one expects any shrinkage in the current of life in the next year. The world’s rhythm will be just as strong, just as even, just as full of joy to those who will accept joy as the birds accept it. What, then, is death if it cannot diminish the sum total of creation’s forces? Is it more than a transfer of energy from one point to another? When the flower dies we can see and measure the transfer; when a man dies we who live cannot see it all, but we can measure the poor shell which is left to us and feel sure, terribly sure at first, joyously sure in time, that all which was there in life is not still there; that something has been transferred where we can neither see nor measure it.
The year begins in snow and ends in snow. When it begins, the pendulum of life is far up at the left of its arc, all its force is gathered in position, none is displayed in motion. But suddenly the pendulum begins to move; it is falling; it moves faster and faster towards the right. Then it is that snows melt, buds swell, birds come northward singing, dormant creatures leave their caves, and all Nature displays her latent energy in motion. Just when the motion of the pendulum is fastest it passes that middle and lowest point in its arc and begins to turn its momentum into the force of position. Up it goes, and as it ascends to the far right, it goes more and more slowly until finally it stops. This upward swing in Nature begins when the first flowers fade, the first nestlings are hatched, and the first leaves fall. In summer we do not always notice the lessening speed of Nature’s motions; not until autumn comes do we realize that the days are shorter, the sun’s rays less warm, the birds fewer, and vegetation almost without power of growth. In December the pendulum stops and all that Nature has of energy is latent, awaiting the turn in the world’s rhythm.
The baby, gurgling and cooing in its basket, is full of latent forces. As life goes on, these powers are exercised more and more to the flood, less and less as the tide ebbs. Yet who is there who dares to say that when old age is reached there is not as much laid by in that soul wrapped in its weary body as there was in the infant full of latent power? We know not where the infant’s forces came from, nor where the dying man’s energy goes to, but if Nature teaches us anything, it teaches us that forces such as these are eternal in the same sense that matter is eternal and space endless.
INDEX
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] Q [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] X [Y] Z
A Albany, [44], [212], [217], [230]. Alder, [196], [212]. Amelanchier, [195]. American holly, [195]. Ant, [182]. Apple-tree, [195]. Arenaria grœnlandica, [26]. Arrowhead, [47]. Ash [4]. Aster, [39], [47], [134], [153], [176], [259], [266].
B Balsam fir, [22], [149]. Barberry, [195]. Bat, [76], [98], [132]. Bear, [35], [82]-95, [148], [153], [233], [275]. Bearcamp Valley, [23], [43], [168], [195], [214]. Bearcamp Water, [23], [43], [290]. Bee, [86], [135], [139], [181], [185]. Beech, [15], [49], [50], [179], [187], [188], [196], [208], [246], [274], [281]. Birch, [7], [195], [207], [246], [274]; canoe, [4], [39], [50], [85]; gray, [38], [139]; yellow, [4], [49], [281]. Birch Intervale, [71], [257]. Bittern, [30], [36]. Blackberry, [12], [48], [179], [191]. Blueberry, [40], [89], [93], [191], [195]. Bluebird, [125], [126], [165], [170]. Bobolink, [126]. Boston, [228], [290]. Bristletails, [181]. Brown creeper, [165], [262], [280]. Brunella, [12], [47], [266]. Buttercups, [181], [259].
C Caddis-worm, [59]. Campton, [23], [43]. Catbird, [98], [114], [116], [130]. Cedar-bird, [103], [107], [116], [120], [130], [143]. Champney Falls brook, [154]. Checkerberry, [12], [39], [204], [259], [283]. Chewink, [226]. Chickadee, blackcap, [7], [11], [107], [113], [119], [130], [143], [165], [184], [202], [241], [253], [262], [272], [286]; Hudson Bay, [218], [254], [258], [286]. Chocorua Lake, [10], [71], [89], [97], [171], [182], [217]. Chocorua River, [225]. Choke-cherry, [179]. Church’s Pond, [243], [282]. Clematis, [196]. Clintonia, [48]. Clover, red, [12], [181]; white, [12], [181], [259]; yellow, [12]. Club-mosses, [204], [283]. Conway, [43], [44], [71], [230], [232], [289]. Cornel, [12], [39], [40], [48]. Crickets, [181]. Crossbill, red, [239], [244], [248], [257], [264]; white, [250]. Crow, [3], [11], [13], [99], [102], [103], [106], [143], [164], [173].
D Daisy, [12]. Dalibarda, [47]. Deer, [25], [35], [255], [258]. Diervilla, [24]. Dogbane, [9], [12]. Downes brook, [267], [268]. Dragonfly, [13], [114], [182]. Duck, black, [36], [128], [160], [165]; sheldrake, [128], [212]; wood, [36], [128], [225].