ENPages That Need Review
Susan B. Anthony Papers, 1815-1961. Diaries. 1853-1856, with scattered later entries, most n.d. A-143, folder 8. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
(seq. 45)
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When acting upon a weak mind it impels it to absurdity and sours it with discontent -
72 He who knows, & knowing can acknowledge his deficiency, though his foot be not on the summit, yet he hath he his eye there --
89 Let us quiet our passions, not by gratifying, but subduing them; let us conquer our meanness, not by rest, but by exertion-- Thus do I win their ears & their confidence. Step by step I lead them on. I lay upon the mysteries of science; I expose the beauties of art; I call the graces & the muses to my aid; the song, the lyre & the dance. Temperance presides at the repast, innocence at the festival; disgust is changed to satisfaction, listlessness to curiosity; brutality, to elegance; lust gives place to love; Bachanalian hilarity to friendship. --
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Tell me not, Zeno, that the teacher is vicious who washes depravity from the youthful heart, who logs the storm of its passions, & turns all its sensibilities to good
99 Explanation always approaches or widen differences between friends --
102 He who has many friends must have many enemies, for you know he must be the abject mark of envy, jealousy & spleen --
110 Any single study, however useful & noble in itself, is unworthy, the entire employ of a curious & powerful intellect - the man who pursues one line of knowl edge, to the exclusion of others, though he should follow it up to its very end, would never be learned or wise --
(seq. 46)
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115 That only is real, is sterling knowledge of man which goes to make us better & happier men, & which fits us to assist the virtue & happiness of others All learning, is useful, all the sciences are curious, all the arts are beautiful, but more useful, more curious, & more beautiful is the perfect knowledge & perfect government of ourselves ----
The Pilot of life is Prudence - The mother of the virtues & the hand maid of wisdom --
Ask, & she will tell you, that gratification will give new edge to the hunger of your appetites, & that the storm of the passions shall kindle with indulgence.
Ask, & she will tell you, that sensual pleasure is but pain covered with the wash of happiness
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121
Philosophy cannot change the laws of nature; but she may teach us to accommodate to them - She cannot annul pain; but she can arm up to bear it - And though the evils of fate be many, are not the evils of man's causing more? --
123 What is death when without superstition to clothe him with terrors, we can cover our heads, & go to sleep in his arms --
If they do not hear her (Truth) whisper in the one ear, it is because prejudice is crying aloud into the other --
Is not this doctrine dangerous -- not if it be true. -- Nothing is so dangerous as error, -nothing so safe as truth
It were a poor complement to the truths I have worhipped, did I shrink from their investigation --
(seq. 47)
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Gerald Massey
"Friendly praise is somewhat like a warm bath, -- apt to enervate, especially if we stay in too long; but friendly censure is like a cold bath, bracing & healthful, though we are always glad to get out of it"
I have known men and women, in the very worst circumstances, to whom heroism seemed a heritage, and to be noble a natural way of living; But they were so in spite of their poverty, not because of it"
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Sartor Resartos
No man who has once heartily & wholly laughed, can be altogether irreclaimably bad --
Cast forth thy art, thy word into the everliving, everworking universe; it is a seed grain that cannot die, unnoticed to day, it will be found flourishing as a banyan-grove (perhaps alas, a hemlock-forest) after a thousand years -
(seq. 48)
[86]
Mr. Masson
"Every fetter that one by the mere sight of might put upon another, remains also with himself, an iron weight to be borne" __
George Sands Consuelo
Oh! Virtue! imposed upon woman, you will never be more than a name, so long as man does not assume half of the task __ All your plans of defense are reduced to subterfuges __ all your immolations of personal happiness, before the fear of driving the loved one to despair--
Horace Mann
?? -- Christ came to make men free in thought - as well as in spirit; & whoever would fetter mens thoughts - would fetter their limbs if he could ______
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Give me a larger eye says the Astronomer, & I will reveal to you another rank of worlds marshalled behind those, whose shining hosts you now [look upon?]
__Rear stronger minds, says the lover of light & truth, & they will light up the race to sublime heights of dignity & power __
(seq. 50)
[90]
the contrary, because I think, I do not exagerate my partialities; - I think I take faults with excellences; blemishes together with beauties.
And beside in the matter of Friendship, I have observed that disappointment here arises chiefly, not from liking our friends too well, or of thinking of them too highly, but rather of from an overestimate of their liking for & opinion of us; and if we guard ourselves with sufficient scrupulousness of care from error in this direction, and can be content, & even happy, to give more affection than we receive, can make just comparison of circum stance, & be severely accurate in drawing inferences thence and never let self love blind our eyes, I think we may manage to get through life with consistency & constancy, unembittered by that misanthropy, which springs from revulsion of feeling.
[91]
All this sounds a little metaphysical, but it is good sense if you consider it.
The moral of it is, that if we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love our friends for their sakes, rather than for our own; we must look at their truth to themselves, full as much as their truth to us.
In the latter case, every wound to self love would be a cause of coldness; in the former, only some painful change in the friend's character, disposition -some fearful break in his allegiance to his better self -could alienate the heart. -_________
Villette
"Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not match the expectation" --
(seq. 51)
[92]
Corinne By Madam De Stael
Page 26th
Corinne - Ah! if I have but power to do you any service, believe not that I will ever renounce it.
Oswald - Take heed, be careful of what benefit you confer on me.
For two long years an iron grasp has pressed upon my...If feel some relief while breathing your sweet presence, what will become of me when thrown back upon mine own fate! What shall I be then? __
Corinne -- Let us leave that to time & chance, they will decide whether the impression of an hour shall last beyond to day. If our souls commune, our mutual affection will not be fugitive; be that as it may, let us admire together all that can elevate our minds; We shall thus at least secure some happy moments. ____
I do not think the heart is so constituted, that it must either feel no love at all, or the most unconquerable passion. There are early symptoms which may vanish before self-examination. We flatter we deceive ourselves; and the very
[93]
enthusiasm of which we are susceptible, if it renders the enchantment more rapid, may also bring the re-action more promptly. --
Oswald You have reflected much on this sentiment madame --
Corinne I suppose no woman of heart ever reached the age of twenty-six without having known the illustions of love; __ but if never to have been happy, never to have met an object worthy of her full affections, is a claim on sympathy I have a right to yours.
Corinne Dear Oswald, let us mingle then blend love, religion, genius sunshine, odors, music, poetry.
There is no no Atheism, but cold selfish baseness. -- Christ has said, when two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be amongst them?? and what oh God! - is assembling in thy name, if we do not so, while enjoying the Charms of Nature, therein praising and thanking thee for our life; above all, when some other heart, created by thy hands, responds entirely to our own. -
(seq. 52)
[94]
Oswald A German Philosopher has said "I know but two beautiful things in the universe, the starry sky above our heads, and the sense of duty in our hearts."
Religion is the links men with each other, unless self-love and fanaticism render it a cause of jealousy and hate. To pray together in whatever tongue or ritual is the most tender brother hood of hope and sympathy that men can contract in this life --
Corinne's fragments of though after her return to Italy
152 - It is not first love that is ineffaceable - we love then because our affections crave an object.
But, when, after we have known life and our judgement is matured, we meet at last the mind and the heart which we have till then sought for in vain, imagination is lost in reality, and reason itself aggravates our suffering --
[95]
Carlyle
"Knowest thou yesterday, its aim and reason? Work'st thou well to day for worthy things? Then fear not thou the morrow's hidden season, But calmly wait what hap soe'er it brings."
(seq. 44)
[78]
26 The Mode of delivering a truth makes, for the most part, as much impression on the mind of the listener as the truth itself.
It is as hard to receive the words of wisdom from the ungentle, as it is to love, or even to recognize virtue in the austere.
30 None can drink of the cup of vice with impunity --
33 But why not answer him? And so I do. I answer him in my life. The only way in which a Philosopher should ever answer a fool, or as in this case a knave --
37 Speaking of Mans young soul It is yet tender, yet pure, years shall strengthen it -- oh let them, not sully it! See that luminary & lovely & glorious in the dawn, he gathers strength & beauty to his meridian, & passes in peace & grandeur to his rest. So do thou my son. - Open your ears, & your eyes, know & choose what is good, enter the path of virtue & thou shalt follow it, for thou shalt find it sweet.
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Thorns are not in it, nor is it difficult or steep; like the garden you have now entered, all there is pleasure & repose. --
The doctrine of Zeno is sublime; Many great men shall come from his school, & an amiable world from mine. -- Zeno hath his eye on Man, I, mine on men - None but Philosophers can be slaves; Epicureans all may be --
Doctors quarrel more about words than things, more about the means than the end
Form your judgements upon knowledge not report --
57 The perfection of wisdom, & the end of true Philosophy, is to proportion our want to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities --
59 Ambition is the spur, & the necessary spur of a great mind to great action
