THE SPHERE OF THOREAU. The eye does not see a sphere all at once, although the sphere exists all at once. Either the sphere must turn before the eye which is looking at it, or the eye must go round the sphere. In the first case it is the world which unrolls or seems to unroll in time; in the second case it is our thought which successively analyses and recomposes. HENRI FRÉDÉRIC AMIEL: Journal Intime. WER TERE one who is familiar with the art of chiromancy to study the signature of Thoreau as we know it on the covers of many of his published writings, he must instantly be impressed with its individuality. It is neither characteristically American, English, nor French, and certainly is not of German or of Latin cast. It is distinct; not racial, but wholly individual, — the stamp of a personality, like the imprint of a seal. One will scarcely have met with his peculiar capital "H" in any written or printed text; while the curve of the "y" and volutes of the initial "D" are equally characteristic. The writing is bold, as of one firm in convictions, joining to the roundness of most of the vowels a marked sharpness in many of the consonants that unite to mould his sonorous name. So that a person conversant with reading character from handwriting would at once perceive the evidence of a strong personality, where the practical and poetical, the imaginative and humorous, if not the paradoxical, are singularly blended; together with a certain occultness or mysticism which appertains to the luminary of the night, a striking resemblance to one of whose phases the initial of the signature bears. Through this graceful crescent we already discern the writer's definition of the line of beauty" All dignity and grandeur has something of the undulatoriness of the sphere; it is the secret of the majesty in the rolling gait of the elephant, and of all grace in action and in art; the line of beauty is a curve." Nor will we find the portent lacking in significance. It is to Thoreau's appreciation of the beautiful in the world of Nature and the rhythm of the year, that his wondrous observation owed its lasting inspiration. His very name is also significant, — indicative of might and power and familiarity with the elements. Like the great god Thor, his vast hall had its five hundred floors; his spouse with the golden hair was the autumnal earth, wreathed with the yellowing scarves of fall; and he, likewise, would slay the World-Serpent. The surname, moreover, with its Gallic termination, has a cool, fluvial sound, as of umbrageous pools, and the flow of brooks through remote woodland solitudes, - of "Arched walks of twilight groves And shadows brown that Sylvan loves The sphere of Thoreau is in truth a region untrodden by all who have preceded or succeeded him. Distinguished from the English Nature-observer who is meet to claim his companionship, Thoreau is more of a recluse, and his covert is more retired. For though he describes the meadows and the fields, together with their flora and their fauna, with marvellous accuracy, and has sung the song of the river and echoed the plaint of its rushes, it is with the mystery and wildness of great woods that his craft is most closely allied. The village church-spire, to be sure, is not always far removed from his sylvan scenes; but it is invariably concealed by the |