Musings of Henry David Thoreau

I am affected.– What coloring variously fair & intense our life admits of–! How a thought will mould & paint it! Impressed by some vague vision as it were - elevated into a more glorious sphere of life - we no longer know this - we can deny its existence - We say we are enchanted perhaps. But what I am impressed by is the fact that this enchantment is no delusion - So far as truth is concerned it is a fact such as what we call our actual existence - but it is a far higher & more glorious fact. It is evidence of such a sphere - of such possibilities - It is truth & reality that affect me. A thrumming of piano strings beyond the gardens & through the elms - at length the melody steals into my being - I know not when it began to occupy me - By some fortunate coincidence of thought or circumstance I am attuned to the universe - I am fitted to hear - my being moves in a sphere of melody - my fancy and imagination are excited to an inconceivable degree - This is no longer the dull earth on which I stood - It is possible to live a grander life here - already the steed is stamping - the knights are prancing - Already our thoughts bid a proud farewell to the so called actual life & its humble glories - Now this is the verdict of a soul in health. But the soul diseased says that its own vision & life a - lone is true & sane.