Autumnal Tints

Two institutions of New England, our fall colors and Henry David Thoreau, are brought together in this posthumously published rumination on Nature. Autumnal Tints was originally published in the October 1862 Atlantic Monthly. “October is the month for painted leaves. Their rich glow now flashes round the world. As fruits and leaves and the day itself acquire a bright tint just before they fall, so the year near its setting. October is its sunset sky; November the later twilight.”