I was talking a few days ago with my good friend, Loxley, about the mysteries of ‘ἐπιούσιον‘, daily bread, supersubstantial bread (Matt 6:11). Today I found this line of Emerson’s:
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.
That’s quite a line, isn’t it?
That’s why long, cloudy winters are so hard on the soul. The eyes look for a light above them like unto their own.
Spoken as a true Chicagoan.
Do you know where he said this? I tried googling but the obnoxious “quotations” sites have made it difficult to find chapter and verse of a quotation, as it were.
Dear Tom,
From his journals I believe: May 25, 1843 The sky is the daily bread of the eyes. What sculpture in these hard clouds; what expression of immense amplitude in this dotted and rippled rack, here firm and continental, there vanishing into plumes and auroral gleams. No crowding; cheerful, boundless, and strong.
Cheerfully, boundlessly,
C.
C., many thanks. I had the line in a journal of mine but (of course) had forgotten to note where I’d found it.
Thank you! A reminder as well that I should pick up his journals again.