"The inhabitants
travel the waste here and there
pilgrim-wise and
staff in
hand, by
narrow footpaths, through which the
sand flows out and
reveals the nakedness of the land. We shuddered at the
thought of living there and taking our
afternoon walks over those
barren swells, where we could overlook every
step of our
walk before taking it, and would have to pray for a fog or a snow-storm to conceal our destiny. The
walker there must soon eat his
heart."
Henry David Thoreau,
Cape Cod, Hyannis, Massachusetts: Parnassus Imprints, 3rd printing, 1995, 185-6.
