Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.
To think, as the sun goes down, what events have happened in the course of the day, events of ordinary occurrence: as, the clocks have struck, the dead have been buried.
Curious to imagine, what murmurings and discontent would be excited if any of the great so-called calamities of human beings were to be abolished, as, for instance, death.
Trifles to one are matters of life and death to another. As, for instance, a farmer desires a brisk breeze to winnow his grain; and mariners, to blow them out of the reach of pirates.
Showing posts with label January 1837. Show all posts
Showing posts with label January 1837. Show all posts
30 January
A recluse, like myself, or a prisoner, to measure time by the progress of sunshine through his chamber.
Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.
A recluse, like myself, or a prisoner, to measure time by the progress of sunshine through his chamber.
Would it not be wiser for people to rejoice at all that they now sorrow for, and vice versa? To put on bridal garments at funerals, and mourning at weddings? For their friends to console with them when they attained riches and honour, as only so much care added?
If in a village it were a custom to hang a funeral garland or other token of death on a house where some one had died, and there to let it remain till a death occurred elsewhere, and then to hang that same garland over the other house, it would have, methinks, a strong effect.
No fountain so small but that heaven may be imaged in its bosom.
A recluse, like myself, or a prisoner, to measure time by the progress of sunshine through his chamber.
Would it not be wiser for people to rejoice at all that they now sorrow for, and vice versa? To put on bridal garments at funerals, and mourning at weddings? For their friends to console with them when they attained riches and honour, as only so much care added?
If in a village it were a custom to hang a funeral garland or other token of death on a house where some one had died, and there to let it remain till a death occurred elsewhere, and then to hang that same garland over the other house, it would have, methinks, a strong effect.
No fountain so small but that heaven may be imaged in its bosom.
28 January
Death, like a great parent, comes and sweeps them all through one darksome portal, all his children.
Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.
A new classification of society to be instituted. Instead of rich and poor, high and low, they are to be classed, First, by their sorrows: for instance, whenever there are any, whether in fair mansion or hovel, who are mourning the loss of relations and friends, and who wear black, whether the cloth be coarse or superfine, they are to make one class. Secondly, all who have the same maladies, whether they lie under damask canopies or on straw pallets or in the wards of hospitals, they are to form one class. Thirdly, all who are guilty of the same sins, whether the world knows them or not; whether they languish in prison, looking forward to the gallows, or walk honoured among men, they also form a class. Then proceed to generalize and classify the whole world together, as none can claim utter exemption from either sorrow, sin, or disease; and if they could, yet Death, like a great parent, comes and sweeps them all through one darksome portal, all his children.
A new classification of society to be instituted. Instead of rich and poor, high and low, they are to be classed, First, by their sorrows: for instance, whenever there are any, whether in fair mansion or hovel, who are mourning the loss of relations and friends, and who wear black, whether the cloth be coarse or superfine, they are to make one class. Secondly, all who have the same maladies, whether they lie under damask canopies or on straw pallets or in the wards of hospitals, they are to form one class. Thirdly, all who are guilty of the same sins, whether the world knows them or not; whether they languish in prison, looking forward to the gallows, or walk honoured among men, they also form a class. Then proceed to generalize and classify the whole world together, as none can claim utter exemption from either sorrow, sin, or disease; and if they could, yet Death, like a great parent, comes and sweeps them all through one darksome portal, all his children.
20 January
the misery of being always under a mask
Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.
Fortune to come like a peddler with his goods, as wreaths of laurel, diamonds, crowns: selling them, but asking for them the sacrifice of health, of integrity, perhaps of life in the battle-field, and of the real pleasures of existence. Who would buy, if the price were to be paid down?
The dying exclamation of the Emperor Augustus, "Has it not been well acted?" An essay on the misery of being always under a mask. A veil may be needful, but never a mask. Instances of people who wear masks in all classes of society, and never take them off even in the most familiar moments, though sometimes they may chance to slip aside.
The various guises under which Ruin makes his approaches to his victims: to the merchant, in the guise of a merchant offering speculations; to the young heir, a jolly companion; to the maiden, a sighing, sentimentalist lover.
What were the contents of the burden of Christian in the "Pilgrim's Progress?" He must have been taken for a peddler traveling with his pack.
Fortune to come like a peddler with his goods, as wreaths of laurel, diamonds, crowns: selling them, but asking for them the sacrifice of health, of integrity, perhaps of life in the battle-field, and of the real pleasures of existence. Who would buy, if the price were to be paid down?
The dying exclamation of the Emperor Augustus, "Has it not been well acted?" An essay on the misery of being always under a mask. A veil may be needful, but never a mask. Instances of people who wear masks in all classes of society, and never take them off even in the most familiar moments, though sometimes they may chance to slip aside.
The various guises under which Ruin makes his approaches to his victims: to the merchant, in the guise of a merchant offering speculations; to the young heir, a jolly companion; to the maiden, a sighing, sentimentalist lover.
What were the contents of the burden of Christian in the "Pilgrim's Progress?" He must have been taken for a peddler traveling with his pack.
14 January
A lament for life's wasted sunshine.
Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.
A sketch illustrating the imperfect compensations which time makes for its devastations on the person, giving a wreath of laurel while it causes baldness, honours for infirmities, wealth for a broken constitution, and at last, when a man has everything that seems desirable, death seizes him. To contrast the man who has thus reached the summit of ambition with the ambitious youth.
* * *
Walking along the track of the railroad, I observed a place where the workmen had bored a hole through the solid rock, in order to blast it; but, striking a spring of water beneath the rock, it gushed up through the hole. It looked as if the water were contained within the rock.
* * *
A Fancy Ball, in which the prominent American writers should appear, dressed in character.
* * *
A lament for life's wasted sunshine.
A sketch illustrating the imperfect compensations which time makes for its devastations on the person, giving a wreath of laurel while it causes baldness, honours for infirmities, wealth for a broken constitution, and at last, when a man has everything that seems desirable, death seizes him. To contrast the man who has thus reached the summit of ambition with the ambitious youth.
* * *
Walking along the track of the railroad, I observed a place where the workmen had bored a hole through the solid rock, in order to blast it; but, striking a spring of water beneath the rock, it gushed up through the hole. It looked as if the water were contained within the rock.
* * *
A Fancy Ball, in which the prominent American writers should appear, dressed in character.
* * *
A lament for life's wasted sunshine.
13 January
A type of envy or some other evil passion.
Editor's note: the following entries were written between October 1836 and July 1837; no specific date is written in the journal.
Memorials of the family of Hawthorne in the church of the village of Dundry, Somersetshire, England. The church is ancient and small, and has a prodigiously high tower of more modern date, being erected in the time of Edward IV. It serves as a landmark for an amazing extent of country.
A singular fact, that, when man is a brute, he is the most sensual and loathsome of all brutes.
A snake, taken into a man's stomach and nourished there from fifteen years to thirty-five, tormenting him most horribly. A type of envy or some other evil passion.
Memorials of the family of Hawthorne in the church of the village of Dundry, Somersetshire, England. The church is ancient and small, and has a prodigiously high tower of more modern date, being erected in the time of Edward IV. It serves as a landmark for an amazing extent of country.
A singular fact, that, when man is a brute, he is the most sensual and loathsome of all brutes.
A snake, taken into a man's stomach and nourished there from fifteen years to thirty-five, tormenting him most horribly. A type of envy or some other evil passion.
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