destined to unlock, and they let it not go until the blessing is won.
So these sunsets and starlights, these swamps and rocks, these bird
notes and animal forms off which we cannot get our eyes and ears, but
hover still, as moths round a lamp, are no doubt a Sanscrit cipher
covering the whole religious history of the universe, and presently we
shall read it off into action and character. The pastures are full of
ghosts for me, the morning woods full of angels."]

[Footnote 470: There are days, etc. The passage in Emerson's journal
is hardly less beautiful. Under date of October 30, 1841, he wrote:
"On this wonderful day when heaven and earth seem to glow with
magnificence, and all the wealth of all the elements is put under
contribution to make the world fine, as if Nature would indulge her
offspring, it seemed ungrateful to hide in the house. Are there not
dull days enough in the year for you to write and read in, that you
should waste this glittering season when Florida and Cuba seem to have
left their glittering seats and come to visit us with all their
shining hours, and almost we expect to see the jasmine and cactus
burst from the ground instead of these last gentians and asters which
have loitered to attend this latter glory of the year? All insects are
out, all birds come forth, the very cattle that lie on the ground seem
to have great thoughts, and Egypt and India look from their eyes."]

[Footnote 471: Halcyons. Halcyon days, ones of peace and tranquillity;
anciently, days of calm weather in mid-winter, when the halcyon, or
kingfisher, was supposed to brood. It was fabled that this bird laid
its eggs in a nest that floated on the sea, and that it charmed the
winds and waves to make them calm while it brooded.]

[Footnote 472: Indian Summer. Calm, dry, hazy weather which comes in