Thoreau’s journey through a day of winter

"A Winter Walk" was published by The Dial in 1843. This journal was the home of the American Transcendentalism, of which Thoreau was a prominent figure. 

A few lines from the contemplative essay.

In winter, nature is a cabinet of curiosities, full of dried specimens, in their natural order and position.

In these wild scenes, men stand about in the scenery, or move deliberately and heavily, having sacrificed the sprightliness and vivacity of towns to the dumb sobriety of nature.

What would human life be without forests, those natural cities?

…if our lives were more conformed to nature, we should not need to defend ourselves against her heats and colds,

With so little effort does nature reassert her rule and blot out the traces of men.

Cabinet of curiosities, sobriety of nature, natural cities, lives conformed to nature, nature reasserts her rule... interesting wording. 

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