The simplest act
of life may discover a chain of cause and effect that binds together the
most remote parts of the system. We are often nearest to truth in some
unexpected moment, and may stumble upon that while in a careless mood
which has eluded our most vigilant and untiring efforts. Men have seen
deepest and farthest when they opened their eyes without any special
aim, and a word or two carelessly dropped by a companion has revealed to
me a truth that weeks of study had failed to compass....

Nature will not be come at directly, but indirectly; all her ways are
retiring and elusive, and she is more apt to reveal herself to her
quiet, unobtrusive lover, than to her formal, ceremonious suitor. A man
who goes out to admire the sunset, or to catch the spirit of field and
grove, will very likely come back disappointed. A bird seldom sings when
watched, and Nature is no coquette, and will not ogle and attitudinize
when stared at. The farmer and traveler drink deepest of this cup,
because it is always a surprise and comes without forethought or
preparation. No insulation or entanglement takes place, and the
soothing, medicinal influence of the fields and the wood takes
possession of us as quietly as a dream, and before we know it we are
living the life of the grass and the trees.

How unconsciously here he describes his own intercourse with Nature! And
what an unusual production for a youth of twenty-three of such meagre
educational advantages!

In 1862, in an essay on "Some of the Ways of Power," which appeared
in the "Leader," he celebrated the beauty and completeness of nature's
inexorable laws:--

There is an evident earnestness and seriousness in the meaning of
things, and the laws that traverse nature and our own being are as fixed
and inexorable, though, maybe, less instantaneous and immediate in their
operation, as the principle of gravitation, and are as little disposed
to pardon the violator or adjourn the day of adjudication.

There seems to be this terrible alternative put to every man on entering
the world, _conquer or be conquered_. It is what the waves say to the
swimmer, "Use me or drown"; what gravity says to the babe, "Use me or
fall"; what the winds say to the sailor, "Use me or be wrecked"; what
the passions say to every one of us, "Drive or be driven." Time in its
dealings with us says plainly enough, "Here I am, your master or your
servant." If we fail to make a good use of time, time will no