Diary_1804-1807_part_one

ReadAboutContentsHelp

Pages

1
Indexed

1

M. B. Smith Diary 1804-1807 Ac. D. R. D 1795 A.

Last edit about 2 months ago by EllaDeer
2
Complete

2

I ask not wealth for less--- is an ornament or joy its pleasure day I have beyond what ???????????? One pleasure that more life shall live

The Library of Congress Seal

This could be 2 separate thoughts, dark writing over light

Last edit over 3 years ago by shashathree
3
Complete

3

When I review the period which has elapsed since this month last year, my heart swells with gratitude toward that God who orders the events of life. When I consider the vicissitiudes incident to human life, the mutability of its enjoyments, the alternations of its joys & sorrows the anxieties & fear which generaly embitter its hap piest moments, its fairest promises of hope often blasted to disappointment, & even the completion of our wishes, inadequate to our expectations, I look upon my own life, with a grateful surprise, & feel as if I was exempted from the common destiny of man. This last year, has been one of the happiest of a happy life! [The more?] Its vicissitudes have been of the pleasing kind, the blessings which marked its commencement have been augmented, the anxieties & fears which I often felt, have been displaced by the happiest certainty; my little Julia who was then enfeebled by disease now enjoys the most perfect health; & the sweet hope of being again a mother, which then dawned upon my heart, has been most delightfully realized & another darling daughter is given to my bosom. From habit, more than from experience we are accustomed to speak of human life, as a scene of trial, a dream, a journey filled with dangers & suffering, a voyage, which is exposed to storms, to rocks, to shipwrecks, insensibly these analogies, influence the mind, & it acquiesces without examination. A rational being should reflect; should reason; opinions & convictions of such importance should be the result of deliberate judgement, & not of a lively imagination. In examining my own mind,

Last edit about 6 years ago by shperdueva
4
Complete

4

I find that many of my errors in judgement arise from the habit which is so common among all classes of reasoners, moralists, philosophers & diviners, of illustrating a moral point, by a physical analogy; thus when we compare life to a voyage on a tempestuous ocean, we make use of the threat'ning waves, the roaring winds, the rocks, thunder, lightning &c to which all voyages are subject, as figures which truly represent the evils incident to human life. -- What can be more false! -- He who commits himself to the elements, has no control over them; he cannot hush the winds, speak peace to the troubled waves, or turn aside the thunderbolts of heaven! -- But which of the evils incident to life, can we not avert by [freight?], by wisdom, by temperance, by virtue? Sickness, is that which seems most out of our own control, but even that, in most cases, might be prevented by care or temperance. The ills of life, are generally of our own procuring, & there are few who if they impartially examine their own hearts, who will not acknowledge that its sorrows & its joys depend much less on those external circumstances, over which we have little or no control, than on our affections, passions, & tempers. From my own experience & from my observation on others, I am persuaded that this is the case; & that there is no situation, which can make us miserable or make us happy, independant of ourselves. In the proper regulations & government of our affections, passions & tempers, consists human liberty.

Last edit about 6 years ago by shperdueva
5
Complete

5

If we are unhappby, let us not blame our destiny, & idly set down to suffer; let us rather turn our eye inward, & instead of complain ing of circumstances which we cannot change, examine ourselves, & perhaps we will discover, that by moving the mind to activity, by calming the restlessness of our passions, by softening our tempers, we may find that happiness [word?] our own bosoms, which we have sought for in vain from the circumstances & accidents of life. For my own part, if I have been happier, than most others have been, I attribute it chiefly to this power, of drawing my happiness more from within than without myself. Often have I been in a situation, which had an other been the judge, they would have decided to have been miserable. -- but I have been happy. If any thing or any person displeases me, I try to forget the cause, by thinking of some more agreeable object or circumstance; if I am sick I try to forget it by reading something amusing, or by sending forth my imagination in search of agreeable images, & some of my most pleasing hours have passed in the bed of sickness. If I form an agreeable scheme, & am disappointed, instead of thinking one moment on the scheme that has failed, I set myself to work to form a better. I never voluntarily indulge melancholy, or disatis faction with my self or then, I continualy cultivate a cheerful & a contented disposition & where I cannot accomodate circum stances to my wishes, I try to accomodate my wishes [to?] my circumstances -- My dear daughter, before the time arrives, at which the instructions & experience of your mother, can assist you; that mother may be taken from you by death, in this case, I should die without being known to my darling children, they would be ignorant how fondly they were beloved, how [word?] they were thought of, how tenderly watched over by their mother. If such should be the [decree?] of heaven, let this book speak for me my children, in these hopes you may

Last edit about 6 years ago by vant
Displaying pages 1 - 5 of 81 in total