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“Secrets lurk on all sides.”
The brief line frames observation as discovery: familiar landscapes still contain details that reward patience, questions, and repeated looking.
Source note: Wake-Robin; the phrase belongs to Burroughs’s description of the naturalist’s expectant attention to the world nearby.
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“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
Emerson connects wisdom with renewed attention, suggesting that curiosity does not always require exotic objects because ordinary experience becomes remarkable when examined closely.
Source note: Nature, Chapter VIII, in Emerson’s discussion of study, inquiry, and finding wonder in ordinary facts.
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“How interesting everything is!”
Wonder becomes a method of attention: rocks, streams, plants, and animals all become invitations to learn rather than background scenery.
Source note: My First Summer in the Sierra, near the close of the summer journal.
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“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings.”
Nature is presented as a source of knowledge that can complement formal study by training attention and receptiveness.
Source note: The Tables Turned; the line follows Wordsworth’s claim that a vernal wood can teach moral insight.
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“"Watch and wait" is the naturalist's sign.”
Patient observation is presented as a working method: discovery often requires remaining attentive long enough for elusive natural behavior to become visible.
Source note: Pepacton. Burroughs writes “Watch and wait” after describing an observation that corrected a gap in his own natural-history knowledge; the phrase is practical field-observation advice in literary natural history.
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“Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher.”
Direct attention to the natural world is offered as a form of learning that complements books and abstract study.
Source note: Poem “The Tables Turned.”