or their apotheosis in the stream beneath? Surely the disembodied
images stand in closer relation to the soul. But both the original
and the reflection had here an ideal charm; and, had it been a thought
more wild, I could have fancied that this river had strayed forth out
of the rich scenery of my companion's inner world; only the vegetation
along its banks should then have had an Oriental character.

Gentle and unobtrusive as the river is, yet the tranquil woods seem
hardly satisfied to allow it passage. The trees are rooted on the
very verge of the water, and dip their pendent branches into it. At
one spot there is a lofty bank, on the slope of which grow some
hemlocks, declining across the stream with outstretched arms, as if
resolute to take the plunge. In other places the banks are almost on
a level with the water; so that the quiet congregation of trees set
their feet in the flood, and are Fringed with foliage down to the
surface. Cardinal-flowers kindle their spiral flames and illuminate
the dark nooks among the shrubbery. The pond-lily grows abundantly
along the margin,--that delicious flower which, as Thoreau tells me,
opens its virgin bosom to the first sunlight and perfects its being
through the magic of that genial kiss. He has beheld beds of them
unfolding in due succession as the sunrise stole gradually from flower
to flower,--a sight not to be hoped for unless when a poet adjusts his
inward eye to a proper focus with the outward organ. Grapevines here
and there twine themselves around shrub and tree and hang their
clusters over the water within reach of the boatman's hand.
Oftentimes they unite two trees of alien race in an inextricable
twine, marrying the hemlock and the maple against their will and
enriching them with a purple offspring of which neither is the parent.
One of these ambitious parasites has climbed into the upper branches
of a tall white-pine, and is still ascending from bough to bough,