It cannot but affect our philosophy favorably to be reminded of these shoals of migratory fishes, of salmon, shad, alewives, marsh-bankers, and others, which penetrate up the innumerable rivers of our coast in the spring, even to the interior lakes, their scales gleaming in the sun; and again, of the fry which in still greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea.

The fishermen say that the "thundering of the pond" scares the fishes and prevents their biting.

Shall a man not have his spring as well as the plants?

With a little more deliberation in the choice of their pursuits, all men would perhaps become essentially students and observers, for certainly their nature and destiny are interesting to all alike.

Could slavery suggest a more complete servility than some of these journals exhibit? Is there any dust which their conduct does not lick, and make fouler still with its slime?

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

When the reptile is attacked at one mouth of his burrow, he shows himself at another.