Anticipate Beauty

J. M. W. Turner: Sun Setting over a Lake 1840

HDT on September 24, 1859:

A man must attend to Nature closely for many years to know when, as well as where, to look for his objects, since he must always anticipate her a little.... I would know when in the year to expect certain thoughts and moods, as the sportsman knows when to look for plover.

On September 25 (in "Autumnal Tints" in 1862)

Why, it takes a sharpshooter to bring down even such trivial game as snipes and woodcocks; he must take very particular aim, and know what he is aiming at.... And so is it with him that shoots at beauty; though he waits til the sky falls, he will not bag any, if he does not already know its seasons and haunts, and the color of its wing, -- if he has not dreamed of it, so that he can anticipate it; then, indeed, he flushes it at every step.