He who turns the stone over is
whosoever puts the staff of truth to the old lying incubus, no matter
whether he do it with a serious face or a laughing one. The next year
stands for the coming time. Then shall the nature which had lain
blanched and broken, rise in its full stature and native hues, in the
sunshine. Then shall God's minstrels build their nests in the hearts of
a new-born humanity. Then shall beauty--Divinity taking outlines and
color--light upon the souls of men as the butterfly, image of the
beautified spirit rising from the dust, soars from the shell that held
a poor grub, which would never have found wings, had not the stone been
lifted.
You never need think you can turn over any old falsehood without a
terrible squirming and scattering of the horrid little population that
dwells under it.
* * * * *
=_212._= PLEASURES OF BOATING.
I dare not publicly name the rare joys, the infinite delights, that
intoxicate me on some sweet June morning, when the river and bay are
smooth as a sheet of beryl-green silk, and I run along ripping it up
with my knife-edged shell of a boat, the rent closing after me like
those wounds of angels which Milton tells of, but the seam still shining
for many a long road behind me.
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