Ralph Waldo Emerson’s diary, 1831

The questions that come to me this evening are few and simple.

Pleasure taken in Ravenswood's grand feudal character great. And why? because the contem- plation of somebody that we could depend upon, and should without risk…

What so fit for man as trust? He did not make himself; he has no finger in the opera- tions of the universe. . . . Let him be calm : let him assume the port of a…

From our feeble hands we drop the tools. Nobody thinks of the duty and the nobleness of instituting a perfect life. Nobody acts three days on a system. A man rises…

Blind men in Rome complained that the streets were dark. To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illuminated mind the whole world burns and sparkles with…

I I suppose it is not wise, not being natural, to belong to any religious party In the Bible you are not directed to be a Unitarian, or a Calvin- ist or an…

One thought more has occurred to me (if there is no logic by which these thoughts cohere.

1 83 1. President Monroe died on the fourth of July, — a respectable man, I believe.

No man can write well who thinks there is any choice of words for him. The laws of com- position are as strict as those of sculpture and architecture. There is…

1 83 1.

I think it better to drink water than cider or ale. I think two cups of tea better than three. Tentandum est.

I wish the Christian principle, the ultra prin- ciple of non-resistance and returning good for ill, might be tried fairly. William Penn made one trial. The world…

" Admiration ennobles and blesses those who feel it. The lover is made happier by his love than his mistress can be. Like the song of the bird, it cheers his own…

Have been at the Examination of Derry Academy, and had some sad, some pleasant thoughts.'

God is not in a hurry. Don't be impatient of riding in a stage coach and talking less religiously than the orthodox passenger, and wish yourself shown to them doing…

Friday.

In connexion with the great doctrines of. Compensation or Reaction, we get the best in- sight into the theory of prayer. It teaches that • prayer does not at all…

Read Muller, vol. i, with great pleasure.

The boys in the streets say to each other, " Dick, toss the ball to m&,you know me," which seems to argue a confidence of each child in its own worthiness of love.…

"Time was his estate." {Italian Philosopher, Johnson, vol. v.) " Daily self-surpast."