Little Rivers [Hardcover]

Henry Van Dyke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2002

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: spreading it out, like a mirror framed in daisies, to reflect the sky and the clouds; sometimes breaking it with sudden turns and unexpected falls into a foam of musical laughter, sometimes soothing it into a sleepy motion like the flow of a dream. And is it otherwise with the men and women whom we know and like ? Does not the spirit influence the form, and the form affect the spirit ? Can we divide and separate them in our affections ? I am no friend to purely psychological attachments. In some unknown future they may be satisfying, but in the present I want your words and your voice, with your thoughts, your looks and your gestures, to interpret your feelings. The warm, strong grasp of Greatheart's hand is as dear to me as the steadfast fashion of his friendships; the lively, sparkling eyes of the master of Rudder Grange charm me as much as the nimbleness of his fancy; and the firm poise of the Hoosier Schoolmaster's shaggy head gives me new confidence in the solidity of his views of life. I like the pure tranquillity of Isabel's brow as well as her " most silver flow Of subtle-paced counsel in distress." The soft cadences and turns in my lady Ka- trina's speech draw me into the humour of hergentle judgments of men and things. The touches of quaintness in Angelica's dress, her folded kerchief and smooth-parted hair, seem to partake of herself, and enhance my admiration for the sweet order of her thoughts and her old- fashioned ideals of love and duty. Even so the stream and its channel are one life, and I cannot think of the swift, brown flood of the Batiscan without its shadowing primeval forests, or the crystalline current of the Boquet without its beds of pebbles and golden sand and grassy banks embroidered with flowers. Every country — or at least every co...

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish.com (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1404315543
• ISBN-13: 978-1404315549
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,469,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)