* * * * *

"Every bird flees from the rain: only the swallow revels in it.

* * * * *

"When I go abroad to refresh myself with a little bodily fatigue, I
meet the farmers returning wearied from their work: it almost makes me
ashamed to be out sauntering.

"In the morning and in the evening we perceive the changes between
light and darkness; yet this change is going on to the same extent
throughout the day.

"Is not the development of the human mind in the same case?

"I have looked upon numberless sunsets, and yet no two were alike. Such
is the endless variety of nature; and therein lies its inexhaustible
beauty.

"In watching the sunset, we are tempted to suppose that from where we
stand, as far as the western horizon, the red glow of evening extends
and there is light, but that behind us all is darkness. Those again who
stand farther eastward imagine that the light extends quite to their
feet, though no farther. Thus every man measures the horizon from the
little spot on which he stands, and all regard themselves as the last
remnants of enlightenment.

"Why is a sunset more attractive to most men than a sunrise?

"Is it because but few ever see the latter, or because that which
departs has more of our sympathies? I think not. The sunset comes to a
beautiful mysterious close in the shade of night and the stillness of
universal rest; but the sunrise never comes to a conclusion: it is
dissipated in the glare and noise and turmoil of the day. Beautiful is
death! Oh, how I long----

* * * * *

"(Behind the manor-house garden.) When a post is driven into the earth,
the end must be charred to keep it from decay: he who is touched by the
fire of the mind can never die.

* * * * *

"The hide of one poor beast is sliced into harness for another. The
application is easy.

* * * * *

"If a man is told that a place he desires to reach is nearer than
it really is, his fatigue is doubled,--the result probably of his
over-eagerness to get to the end of his journey.

"I have erred in thinking the way to the goal of my life shorter than
it turns out to be.

* * * * *

"In mowing you must take short steps and walk forward in a straight
line. The more sparse the clover, the more fatigue in the labor: the
scythe reels about