A Gold Mine!!

In a riveting essay called "Life Without Principle," Thoreau wrote about the vanity of gold miners (among many, many other things....it's really a GREAT essay/speech indeed...well worth reading if you want your view of life to change!!)....well in honor and jest of his mention of California and Australian gold miners I am pleased to announce that I have in fact struck at gold this very night!

Thanks to a friend posting a random Thoreau quote tonight on Facebook which I happened across and have never once read before in my life, I went out in search of more info regarding this quote (the quote is below if you're curious). And boy did I find more than what I was looking for!!!

Here it is ladies and gentlemen without further adieu....

The Walden Woods Project

http://www.walden.org/

There is much here and there in the site and I'll let you uncover what you will lifting up each stone and unveiling (perhaps) one more corner from "the statute of the divinity" at your leisure (of course). But suffice it to say that there is a fully downloadable pdf version (chapter by chapter) of Walden Pond as published in book form from 1906. What a treat indeed! My rather boring night (admittedly) has been replenished by sweet elvish music!!! :D :D

Happy foraging fellow readers!!

Here is the quote that started this fox chase:

• When I hear music I fear no danger, I am invulnerable, I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times and to the latest. [Journal, 13 January 1857]

And here is a quote that struck me deeply (as I too play the flute) while in hot pursuit:

• I sailed on the North River last night with my flute, and my music was a tinkling stream which meandered with the river, and fell from note to note as a brook from rock to rock. I did not hear the strains after they had issued from the flute, but before they were breathed into it, for the original strain precedes the sound by as much as the echo follows after, and the rest is the perquisite of the rocks and trees and beasts. Unpremeditated music is the true gauge which measures the current of our thoughts, the very undertow of our life’s stream. [Journal, 18 August 1841]

Also if interested, here's a link to the text of the essay mentioned above called "Life Without Principle." Happy reading!

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Life_Without_Principle

Walden Pond (yes I'm Back!!!) & the "Reading" Chapter

Hi All,

No you're not dreaming....I have in fact put up another post here at my happy blog!! :D

I've been quite busy this year with getting my second bachelors (this time in Accounting....my first one is in English Literature of course). ;) But it looks like I'll be graduating by the end of this year (God willing) and so I've got a bit of time on my hands now to devote to the blog again (yeah!). :)

I decided to do a video on chapter 3 of Walden Pond called READING. This is a powerful and very compact chapter that speaks VOLUMES (no pun intended!!). Of course I love it and almost swear by the precepts found within it. In fact it makes me want to read and get far more familiar with the Ancient writers even further. So perhaps I'll get to that more in 2012 (hopefully). :D :D

Well the video post for my discussion with you of this chapter of Reading is right here below (parts 2 and 3 weren't uploading to the blog correctly so I put the web links below for you to cut and paste instead):

READING CHAPTER PART 1 OF 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qXZqeTdt8w

READING CHAPTER PART 2 OF 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSKj0otXI8Y

READING CHAPTER PART 3 OF 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwtBC-iF5M

Here's the Shakespearean Sonnet I mentioned about the leaves changing, Death, and Time (in case you were interested in reading that). I thought it was Sonnet 74 but it turns out to actually be Sonnet 73 (pretty darn close though eh?!!?) :D :D

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
   This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.


And here's the link to where I got the sonnet in case you were curious:

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/73