ever person about her--one who had learnt
something and with whom she could talk about everything. And she does
this to the letter. I am obliged to explain a thousand things to her,
and she is sincerely grateful for any information I can give her.

"I like to get my kindling-wood ready in time," said she to-day.
Translated into our language, this means that she likes to think over
things beforehand.

But there are so many dark doors which we pass with closed eyes.

*

While watching the foal to-day, I could not help thinking that the
first man who tamed a beast--that is, subdued it so that it would bear
him and support him--was the first to assert the power of humanity.
Other animals can kill each other, but not one of them can guide
another life to its own advantage. There are no new species of beasts
to be tamed now. Men are, in truth, becoming poets. They condense the
intangible forces and say to steam, to light, and to the electric
spark: "Come and do my bidding."

*

I have bought some sugar with which to feed my white foal. It is a
great pleasure, and to-day I could not help thinking that, if any one
saw us, it must have been a pretty picture.

Oh, how vain and trifling I still am!

*

Every large and extended estate, be it this very farm, or the court at
the capital, has its vassals, its servants, its parasites, its willing
subjects. The world is the same everywhere.

*

Peasant life is not the elegant world, but there must be plow horses as
well as carriage horses.

*

To live out of one's self, to give full sway to one's native
temperament, to remain unmoved by external influences:--thus may one
learn to know himself and that which is highest. It is in the desert
waste that God reveals himself to the individual heart. The bush burns
and yet is not consumed.

*

Whenever I look at the mountains, I am impressed anew with their
sublimity.

The world below me is covered by a sea of mist from which the mountain
peaks here and there protrude. With every day, as it were, I behold the
first day of creation.

I am beginning to understand the idea of the sublime. It is the awe of
greatness, not the awe of fear. I feel as if dwelling in a temple.

*

Solit