early

I have been getting up early in the morning to walk. It was 15 degrees the other morning with very small snowflakes more floating than falling under the outside lights. The light from the windows is blazing in the house when I return; rectangles within rectangles.
What is the course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society,  or the most admirable routine of life compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen?
Walden
Henry David Thoreau