…a man is a fool to be mean & unhappy when every day is made illustrious by these splendid shows
I went thro’ the wood to Sleepy Hollow & sat down to hear the harmless roarings of the sunny Southwind. Into the narrow throat of the vale flew dust & leaves from the fields, & straggling leaves mounted & mounted to great heights. The shining boughs of the trees in the sun, the swift sailing clouds, & the warm air made me think a man is a fool to be mean & unhappy when every day is made illustrious by these splendid shows. If Nature relented at all from transcending laws, if there were any traces in the daily Obituary that the yellow fever spared this doctor or that Sunday School teacher, if any sign were that a “good man” was governing, we should lose all our confidence, the world all its sublimity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks 5:401
