Specimen Days

Down in the Woods, July 2d, 1882.—If I do it at all I must delay no longer. Incongruous and full of skips and jumps as is that huddle of…

You ask for items, details of my early life—of genealogy and parentage, particularly of the women of my ancestry, and of its far back…

The later years of the last century found the Van Velsor family, my mother’s side, living on their own farm at Cold Spring, Long Island,…

July 29, 1881.—After more than forty years’ absence, (except a brief visit, to take my father there once more, two years before he died,)…

I went down from this ancient grave place eighty or ninety rods to the site of the Van Velsor homestead, where my mother was born (1795,)…

Of the domestic and inside life of the middle of Long Island, at and just before that time, here are two samples:

Worth fully and particularly investigating indeed this Paumanok, (to give the spot its aboriginal name,) stretching east through Kings,…

From 1824 to ’28 our family lived in Brooklyn in Front, Cranberry and Johnson streets. In the latter my father built a nice house for a…

After about two years went to work in a weekly newspaper and printing office, to learn the trade. The paper was the “Long Island Patriot,”…

I develop’d (1833–4–5) into a healthy, strong youth (grew too fast, though, was nearly as big as a man at 15 or 16.) Our family at this…

Living in Brooklyn or New York city from this time forward, my life, then, and still more the following years, was curiously identified…

Besides Fulton ferry, off and on for years, I knew and frequented Broadway—that noted avenue of New York’s crowded and mixed humanity, and…

One phase of those days must by no means go unrecorded—namely, the Broadway omnibuses, with their drivers. The vehicles still (I write this…

And certain actors and singers, had a good deal to do with the business. All through these years, off and on, I frequented the old Park,…

In 1848, ’49, I was occupied as editor of the “daily Eagle” newspaper, in Brooklyn. The latter year went off on a leisurely journey and…

To sum up the foregoing from the outset (and, of course, far, far more unrecorded,) I estimate three leading sources and formative stamps…

News of the attack on fort Sumter and the flag at Charleston harbor, S. C., was receiv’d in New York city late at night (13th April, 1861,)…

I have said somewhere that the three Presidentiads preceding 1861 show’d how the weakness and wickedness of rulers are just as eligible…

Even after the bombardment of Sumter, however, the gravity of the revolt, and the power and will of the slave States for a strong and…

All this sort of feeling was destin’d to be arrested and revers’d by a terrible shock—the battle of first Bull Run—certainly, as we now…

But the hour, the day, the night pass’d, and whatever returns, an hour, a day, a night like that can never again return. The President,…

Falmouth, Va., opposite Fredericksburgh, December 21, 1862.—Begin my visits among the camp hospitals in the army of the Potomac. Spend a…

December 23 to 31.—The results of the late battle are exhibited everywhere about here in thousands of cases, (hundreds die every day,) in…

January, ’63.—Left camp at Falmouth, with some wounded, a few days since, and came here by Aquia creek railroad, and so on government…

Here is a case of a soldier I found among the crowded cots in the Patent-office. He likes to have some one to talk to, and we will listen…

Letter Writing.—When eligible, I encourage the men to write, and myself, when called upon, write all sorts of letters for them, (including…

February 23.—I must not let the great hospital at the Patent-office pass away without some mention. A few weeks ago the vast area of the…

February 24th.—A spell of fine soft weather. I wander about a good deal, sometimes at night under the moon. To-night took a long look at…

Let me specialize a visit I made to the collection of barrack-like one-story edifices, Campbell hospital, out on the flats, at the end of…

This young man in bed 25 is H. D. B., of the 27th Connecticut, company B. His folks live at Northford, near New Haven. Though not more than…

Here in this same ward are two young men from Brooklyn, members of the 51st New York. I had known both the two as young lads at home, so…

The grand soldiers are not comprised in those of one side, any more than the other. Here is a sample of an unknown southerner, a lad of…

May, ’63.—As I write this, the wounded have begun to arrive from Hooker’s command from bloody Chancellorsville. I was down among the first…

May 12.—There was part of the late battle at Chancellorsville,(second Fredericksburgh,) a little over a week ago, Saturday, Saturday night…

Of scenes like these, I say, who writes—whoe’er can write the story? Of many a score—aye, thousands, north and south, of unwrit heroes,…

June 18th.—In one of the hospitals I find Thomas Haley, company M, 4th New York cavalry—a regular Irish boy, a fine specimen of youthful…

In my visits to the hospitals I found it was in the simple matter of personal presence, and emanating ordinary cheer and magnetism, that I…

June 25, Sundown.—As I sit writing this paragraph I see a train of about thirty huge four-horse wagons, used as ambulances, fill’d with…

The soldiers are nearly all young men, and far more American than is generally supposed—I should say nine-tenths are native-born. Among the…

June 29.—Just before sundown this evening a very large cavalry force went by—a fine sight. The men evidently had seen service. First came a…

July 4th.—The weather to-day, upon the whole, is very fine, warm, but from a smart rain last night, fresh enough, and no dust, which is a…

I am writing this, nearly sundown, watching a cavalry company (acting Signal service,) just come in through a shower, making their night’s…

This afternoon, July 22d, I have spent a long time with Oscar F. Wilber, company G, 154th New York, low with chronic diarrhœa, and a bad…

August 8th.—To-night, as I was trying to keep cool, sitting by a wounded soldier in Armory-square, I was attracted by some pleasant singing…

August 12th.—I see the President almost every day, as I happen to live where he passes to or from his lodgings out of town. He never sleeps…

There has lately been much suffering here from heat; we have had it upon us now eleven days. I go around with an umbrella and a fan. I saw…

Soldiers, soldiers, soldiers, you meet everywhere about the city, often superb-looking men, though invalids dress’d in worn uniforms, and…

Another characteristic scene of that dark and bloody 1863, from notes of my visit to Armory-square hospital, one hot but pleasant summer…

Aug., Sep., and Oct., ’63.—I am in the habit of going to all, and to Fairfax seminary, Alexandria, and over Long bridge to the great…

October 20th.—To-night, after leaving the hospital at 10 o’clock, (I had been on self-imposed duty some five hours, pretty closely…

Every now and then, in hospital or camp, there are beings I meet—specimens of unworldliness, disinterestedness, and animal purity and…

Among other sights are immense droves of cattle with their drivers, passing through the streets of the city. Some of the men have a way of…

To add to other troubles, amid the confusion of this great army of sick, it is almost impossible for a stranger to find any friend or…

Culpepper, Va., Feb. ’64.—Here I am pretty well down toward the extreme front. Three or four days ago General S., who is now in chief…

One of the things to note here now is the arrival of the paymaster with his strong box, and the payment of bounties to veterans…

About the excitement of Sunday, and the orders to be ready to start, I have heard since that the said orders came from some cautious minor…

Dilapidated, fenceless, and trodden with war as Virginia is, wherever I move across her surface, I find myself rous’d to surprise and…

I am back again in Washington, on my regular daily and nightly rounds. Of course there are many specialties. Dotting a ward here and there…

It is plain to me out of the events of the war, north and south, and out of all considerations, that the current military theory, practice,…

I wonder if I could ever convey to another—to you, for instance, reader dear—the tender and terrible realities of such cases, (many, many…

It is Sunday afternoon, middle of summer, hot and oppressive, and very silent through the ward. I am taking care of a critical case, now…

As I turn’d off the Avenue one cool October evening into Thirteenth street, a soldier with knapsack and overcoat stood at the corner…

Michael Stansbury, 48 years of age, a sea-faring man, a southerner by birth and raising, formerly captain of U.S. light ship Long Shoal,…

Oct. 24.—Saw a large squad of our own deserters, (over 300) surrounded with a cordon of arm’d guards, marching along Pennsylvania avenue.…

In one of the late movements of our troops in the valley, (near Upperville, I think,) a strong force of Moseby’s mounted guerillas attack’d…

As a very large proportion of the wounded came up from the front without a cent of money in their pockets, I soon discover’d that it was…

Some of the half-eras’d, and not over-legible when made, memoranda of things wanted by one patient or another, will convey quite a fair…

Well, poor John Mahay is dead. He died yesterday. His was a painful and long-lingering case, (see p. 30 ante.) I have been with him at…

I must bear my most emphatic testimony to the zeal, manliness, and professional spirit and capacity, generally prevailing among the…

This city, its suburbs, the capitol, the front of the White House, the places of amusement, the Avenue, and all the main streets, swarm…

Sunday, January 29th, 1865.—Have been in Armory-square this afternoon. The wards are very comfortable, new floors and plaster walls, and…

As I walk’d home about sunset, I saw in Fourteenth street a very young soldier, thinly clad, standing near the house I was about to enter.…

Here is an incident just occurr’d in one of the hospitals. A lady named Miss or Mrs. Billings, who has long been a practical friend of…

There are many women in one position or another, among the hospitals, mostly as nurses here in Washington, and among the military stations;…

Feb. 23, ’65.—I saw a large procession of young men from the rebel army, (deserters they are call’d, but the usual meaning of the word does…

To-night I have been wandering awhile in the capitol, which is all lit up. The illuminated rotunda looks fine. I like to stand aside and…

March 4.—The President very quietly rode down to the capitol in his own carriage, by himself, on a sharp trot, about noon, either because…

Looking over my scraps, I find I wrote the following during 1864. The happening to our America, abroad as well as at home, these years, is…

Whether the rains, the heat and cold, and what underlies them all, are affected with what affects man in masses, and follow his play of…

March 6.—I have been up to look at the dance and supper-rooms, for the inauguration ball at the Patent office; and I could not help…

I must mention a strange scene at the capitol, the hall of Representatives, the morning of Saturday last, (March 4th.) The day just dawn’d,…

March 27, 1865.—Sergeant Calvin F. Harlowe, company C, 29th Massachusetts, 3d brigade, 1st division, Ninth corps—a mark’d sample of heroism…

The war is over, but the hospitals are fuller than ever, from former and current cases. A large majority of the wounds are in the arms and…

April 16, ’65.—I find in my notes of the time, this passage on the death of Abraham Lincoln: He leaves for America’s history and biography,…

When Sherman’s armies, (long after they left Atlanta,) were marching through South and North Carolina—after leaving Savannah, the news of…

Probably the reader has seen physiognomies (often old farmers, sea-captains, and such) that,behind their homeliness, or even ugliness, held…

The releas’d prisoners of war are now coming up from the southern prisons. I have seen a number of them. The sight is worse than any sight…

Frank H. Irwin, company E, 93d Pennsylvania—died May I, ’65—My letter to his mother.—Dear madam: No doubt you and Frank’s friends have…

May 7.—Sunday.—To-day as I was walking a mile or two south of Alexandria, I fell in with several large squads of the returning Western…

For two days now the broad spaces of Pennsylvania avenue along to Treasury hill, and so by detour around to the President’s house, and so…

May 26–7.—The streets, the public buildings and grounds of Washington, still swarm with soldiers from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri,…

May 28.—As I sat by the bedside of a sick Michigan soldier in hospital to-day, a convalescent from the adjoining bed rose and came to me,…

May 28–9.—I staid to-night a long time by the bedside of a new patient, a young Baltimorean, aged about 19 years, W. S. P., (2d Maryland,…

May 31.—James H. Williams, aged 21, 3d Virginia cavalry.—About as mark’d a case of a strong man brought low by a complication of diseases,…

In one of the hospital tents for special cases, as I sat to-day tending a new amputation, I heard a couple of neighboring soldiers talking…

October 3.—There are two army hospitals now remaining. I went to the largest of these (Douglas) and spent the afternoon and evening. There…

Even the typical soldiers I have been personally intimate with,—it seems to me if I were to make a list of them it would be like a city…

As I have look’d over the proof-sheets of the preceding pages, I have once or twice fear’d that my diary would prove, at best, but a batch…

During those three years in hospital, camp or field, I made over six hundred visits or tours, and went, as I estimate, counting all, among…

The dead in this war—there they lie, strewing the fields and woods and valleys and battle-fields of the south—Virginia, the…

And so good-bye to the war. I know not how it may have been, or may be, to others—to me the main interest I found, (and still, on…

Several years now elapse before I resume my diary. I continued at Washington working in the Attorney-General’s department through ’66 and…

1876, ’77.—I find the woods in mid-May and early June my best places for composition. Seated on logs or stumps there, or resting on rails,…

As every man has his hobby-liking, mine is for a real farm-lane fenced by old chestnut-rails gray-green with dabs of moss and lichen,…

So, still sauntering on, to the spring under the willows—musical as soft clinking glasses—pouring a sizeable stream, thick as my neck, pure…

Away then to loosen, to unstring the divine bow, so tense, so long. Away, from curtain, carpet, sofa, book—from “society”—from city house,…

Did you ever chance to hear the midnight flight of birds passing through the air and darkness overhead, in countless armies, changing their…

May-month—month of swarming, singing, mating birds—the bumble-bee month—month of the flowering lilac—(and then my own birth-month.) As I…

As I journey’d to-day in a light wagon ten or twelve miles through the country, nothing pleas’d me more, in their homely beauty and novelty…

June 10th.—As I write, 5½ P. M., here by the creek, nothing can exceed the quiet splendor and freshness around me. We had a heavy shower,…

June 19th, 4 to 6½, P. M.—Sitting alone by the creek—solitude here, but the scene bright and vivid enough—the sun shining, and quite a…

The fervent heat, but so much more endurable in this pure air—the white and pink pond-blossoms, with great heart-shaped leaves; the glassy…

Aug. 22.—Reedy monotones of locust, or sounds of katydid—I hear the latter at night, and the other both day and night. I thought the…

Sept. 1.—I should not take either the biggest or the most picturesque tree to illustrate it. Here is one of my favorites now before me, a…

Sept. 20.—Under an old black oak, glossy and green, exhaling aroma—amid a grove the Albic druids might have chosen—envelop’d in the warmth…

Oct. 20.—A clear, crispy day—dry and breezy air, full of oxygen. Out of the sane, silent, beauteous miracles that envelope and fuse…

Such a play of colors and lights, different seasons, different hours of the day—the lines of the far horizon where the faint-tinged edge of…

The forenoon leaden and cloudy, not cold or wet, but indicating both. As I hobble down here and sit by the silent pond, how different from…

Nov. 14.—As I sit here by the creek, resting after my walk, a warm languor bathes me from the sun. No sound but a cawing of crows, and no…

One bright December mid-day lately I spent down on the New Jersey sea-shore, reaching it by a little more than an hour’s railroad trip over…

Even as a boy, I had the fancy, the wish, to write a piece, perhaps a poem, about the sea-shore—that suggesting, dividing line, contact,…

Some thirty-five years ago, in New York city, at Tammany hall, of which place I was then a frequenter, I happen’d to become quite well…

Feb. 3, ‘77.—From 4 to 6 P. M. crossing the Delaware, (back again at my Camden home,) unable to make our landing, through the ice; our boat…

Feb. 10.—The first chirping, almost singing, of a bird to-day. Then I noticed a couple of honey-bees spirting and humming about the open…

How is it that in all the serenity and lonesomeness of solitude, away off here amid the hush of the forest, alone, or as I have found in…

Feb. 22.—Last night and to-day rainy and thick, till mid-afternoon, when the wind chopp’d round, the clouds swiftly drew off like curtains,…

April 6.—Palpable spring indeed, or the indications of it. I am sitting in bright sunshine, at the edge of the creek, the surface just…

The soil, too—let others pen-and-ink the sea, the air, (as I sometimes try)—but now I feel to choose the common soil for theme—naught else.…

A little later—bright weather.—An unusual melodiousness, these days, (last of April and first of May) from the blackbirds; indeed all sorts…

May 21.—Back in Camden. Again commencing one of those unusually transparent, full-starr’d, blue-black nights, as if to show that however…

Large, placid mulleins, as summer advances, velvety in texture, of a light greenish-drab color, growing everywhere in the fields—at first…

The axe of the wood-cutter, the measured thud of a single threshing-flail, the crowing of chanticleer in the barn-yard, (with invariable…

Sunday, Aug. 27.—Another day quite free from mark’d prostration and pain. It seems indeed as if peace and nutriment from heaven subtly…

Sept. 5, ’77.—I write this, 11 A. M., shelter’d under a dense oak by the bank, where I have taken refuge from a sudden rain. I came down…

While I have been kept by the rain under the shelter of my great oak, (perfectly dry and comfortable, to the rattle of the drops all…

Where I was stopping I saw the first palpable frost, on my sunrise walk, October 6; all over the yet-green spread a light blue-gray veil,…

December 20.—Somehow I got thinking to-day of young men’s deaths—not at all sadly or sentimentally, but gravely, realistically, perhaps a…

February 7, 1878.—Glistening sun to-day, with slight haze, warm enough, and yet tart, as I sit here in the open air, down in my country…

March 16.—Fine, clear, dazzling morning, the sun an hour high, the air just tart enough. What a stamp in advance my whole day receives from…

May 6, 5 P. M.—This is the hour for strange effects in light and shade—enough to make a colorist go delirious—long spokes of molten silver…

June 2.—This is the fourth day of a dark northeast storm, wind and rain. Day before yesterday was my birthday. I have now enter’d on my…

July 3d, 4th, 5th.—Clear, hot, favorable weather—has been a good summer—the growth of clover and grass now generally mow’d. The familiar…

June 15.—To-day I noticed a new large bird, size of a nearly grown hen—a haughty, white-bodied dark-wing’d hawk—I suppose a hawk from his…

How much music (wild, simple, savage, doubtless, but so tart-sweet,) there is in mere whistling. It is four-fifths of the utterance of…

Aug. 22.—Not a human being, and hardly the evidence of one, in sight. After my brief semi-daily bath, I sit here for a bit, the brook…

July 14.—My two kingfishers still haunt the pond. In the bright sun and breeze and perfect temperature of to-day, noon, I am sitting here…

New York City.—Came on from West Philadelphia, June 13, in the 2 P. M. train to Jersey city, and so across and to my friends, Mr. and Mrs.…

June 20th.—On the “Mary Powell,” enjoy’d everything beyond precedent. The delicious tender summer day, just warm enough—the constantly…

June 21.—Here I am, on the west bank of the Hudson, 80 miles north of New York, near Esopus, at the handsome, roomy,…

June 22.—This afternoon we went out (J. B., Al. and I) on quite a drive around the country. The scenery, the perpetual stone fences, (some…

June 25.—Returned to New York last night. Out to-day on the waters for a sail in the wide bay, southeast of Staten island—a rough, tossing…

The general subjective view of New York and Brooklyn—(will not the time hasten when the two shall be municipally united in one, and named…

July 22d, 1878.—Living down in the country again. A wonderful conjunction of all that goes to make those sometime miracle-hours after…

Aug. 4.—A pretty sight! Where I sit in the shade—a warm day, the sun shining from cloudless skies, the forenoon well advanc’d—I look over a…

Aug. 25, 9-10 A.M.—I sit by the edge of the pond, everything quiet, the broad polish’d surface spread before me—the blue of the heavens and…

This has been and is yet a great season for wild flowers; oceans of them line the roads through the woods, border the edges of the…

The foregoing reminds me of something. As the individualities I would mainly portray have certainly been slighted by folks who make…

April 5, 1879.—With the return of spring to the skies, airs, waters of the Delaware, return the sea-gulls. I never tire of watching their…

Then the Camden ferry. What exhilaration, change, people, business, by day. What soothing, silent, wondrous hours, at night, crossing on…

Winter relaxing its hold, has already allow’d us a foretaste of spring. As I write, yesterday afternoon’s softness and brightness, (after…

April 23.—Off to New York on a little tour and visit. Leaving the hospitable, home-like quarters of my valued friends, Mr. and Mrs. J. H.…

April 26.—At sunrise, the pure clear sound of the meadow lark. An hour later, some notes, few and simple, yet delicious and perfect, from…

I found in one of my rambles up the hills a real hermit, living in a lonesome spot, hard to get at, rocky, the view fine, with a little…

I jot this mem. in a wild scene of woods and hills, where we have come to visit a waterfall. I never saw finer or more copious hemlocks,…

As I saunter’d along the high road yesterday, I stopp’d to watch a man near by, ploughing a rough stony field with a yoke of oxen. Usually…

It was a happy thought to build the Hudson river railroad right along the shore. The grade is already made by nature; you are sure of…

NEW YORK, May 24, ’79.—Perhaps no quarters of this city (I have return’d again for awhile,) make more brilliant, animated, crowded,…

May 16 to 22.—I visit Central Park now almost every day, sitting, or slowly rambling, or riding around. The whole place presents its very…

Ten thousand vehicles careering through the Park this perfect afternoon. Such a show! and I have seen all—watch’d it narrowly, and at my…

May 15.—A three hours’ bay-trip from 12 to 3 this afternoon, accompanying “the City of Brussels” down as far as the Narrows, in behoof of…

From 7 to 9, aboard the United States school-ship Minnesota, lying up the North river. Captain Luce sent his gig for us about sundown, to…

Aug. 4.—Forenoon—as I sit under the willow shade, (have retreated down in the country again,) a little bird is leisurely dousing and…

Philadelphia, Aug. 26.—Last night and to-night of unsurpass’d clearness, after two days’ rain; moon splendor and star splendor. Being out…

Sept. 3.—Cloudy and wet, and wind due east; air without palpable fog, but very heavy with moisture—welcome for a change. Forenoon, crossing…

The following three or four months (Sept. to Dec. ’79) I made quite a western journey, fetching up at Denver, Colorado, and penetrating the…

What a fierce weird pleasure to lie in my berth at night in the luxurious palace-car, drawn by the mighty Baldwin—embodying, and filling…

We should have made the run of 960 miles from Philadelphia to St. Louis in thirty-six hours, but we had a collision and bad locomotive…

We thought of stopping in Kansas City, but when we got there we found a train ready and a crowd of hospitable Kansians to take us on to…

At a large popular meeting at Topeka—the Kansas State Silver Wedding, fifteen or twenty thousand people—I had been erroneously bill’d to…

The jaunt of five or six hundred miles from Topeka to Denver took me through a variety of country, but all unmistakably prolific, western,…

Jottings from the Rocky Mountains, mostly pencill’d during a day’s trip over the South Park RR., returning from Leadville, and especially…

“I have found the law of my own poems,” was the unspoken but more-and-more decided feeling that came to me as I pass’d, hour after hour,…

We follow the stream of amber and bronze brawling along its bed, with its frequent cascades and snow-white foam. Through the cañon we…

I get out on a ten minutes’ stoppage at Deer creek, to enjoy the unequal’d combination of hill, stone and wood. As we speed again, the…

I jot these lines literally at Kenosha summit, where we return, afternoon, and take a long rest, 10,000 feet above sea-level. At this…

In the midst of all here, lie such beautiful contrasts as the sunken basins of the North, Middle, and South Parks, (the latter I am now on…

Talk, I say again, of going to Europe, of visiting the ruins of feudal castles, or Coliseum remains, or kings’ palaces—when you can come…

Through the long-lingering half-light of the most superb of evenings we return’d to Denver, where I staid several days leisurely exploring,…

Leave Denver at 8 A. M. by the Rio Grande RR. going south. Mountains constantly in sight in the apparently near distance, veil’d slightly,…

I had wanted to go to the Yellowstone river region—wanted specially to see the National Park, and the geysers and the “hoodoo” or goblin…

Here I must say a word about a little follower, present even now before my eyes. I have been accompanied on my whole journey from Barnegat…

Grand as the thought that doubtless the child is already born who will see a hundred millions of people, the most prosperous and advanc’d…

Between Pueblo and Bent’s fort, southward, in a clear afternoon sun-spell I catch exceptionally good glimpses of the Spanish peaks. We are…

Speaking generally as to the capacity and sure future destiny of that plain and prairie area (larger than any European kingdom) it is the…

The valley of the Mississippi river and its tributaries, (this stream and its adjuncts involve a big part of the question,) comprehends…

The word Prairie is French, and means literally meadow. The cosmical analogies of our North American plains are the Steppes of Asia, the…

Lying by one rainy day in Missouri to rest after quite a long exploration—first trying a big volume I found there of “Milton, Young, Gray,…

Oct. 17, ’79.—To-day one of the newspapers of St. Louis prints the following informal remarks of mine on American, especially Western…

Kansas City.—I am not so well satisfied with what I see of the women of the prairie cities. I am writing this where I sit leisurely in a…

Sept. 28, ’79.—So General Grant, after circumambiating the world, has arrived home again, landed in San Francisco yesterday, from the ship…

Sept. 30.—I see President Hayes has come out West, passing quite informally from point to point, with his wife and a small cortege of big…

Oct., Nov., and Dec., ’79.—The points of St. Louis are its position, its absolute wealth, (the long accumulations of time and trade, solid…

Oct. 29th, 30th, and 31st.—Wonderfully fine, with the full harvest moon, dazzling and silvery. I have haunted the river every night lately,…

“Always, after supper, take a walk half a mile long,” says an old proverb, dryly adding, “and if convenient let it be upon your own land.”…

Jan. 1, ’80.—In diagnosing this disease called humanity—to assume for the nonce what seems a chief mood of the personality and writings of…

Feb. 11, ’80.—At a good concert to-night in the foyer of the opera house, Philadelphia—the band a small but first-rate one. Never did music…

Feb. 13.—As I was crossing the Delaware to-day, saw a large flock of wild geese, right overhead, not very high up, ranged in V-shape, in…

March 8.—I write this down in the country again, but in a new spot, seated on a log in the woods, warm, sunny, midday. Have been loafing…

May 9, Sunday.—Visit this evening to my friends the J.’s—good supper, to which I did justice—lively chat with Mrs. J. and I. and J. As I…

June 4, ’80.—For really seizing a great picture or book, or piece of music, or architecture, or grand scenery—or perhaps for the first time…

To go back a little, I left Philadelphia, 9th and Green streets, at 8 o’clock P.M., June 3, on a first-class sleeper, by the Lehigh Valley…

June 6.—Went over to the religious services (Episcopal) main Insane asylum, held in a lofty, good-sized hall, third story. Plain boards,…

June 8.—To-day a letter from Mrs. E. S. L., Detroit, accompanied in a little post-office roll by a rare old engraved head of Elias Hicks,…

In a few days I go to lake Huron, and may have something to say of that region and people. From what I already see, I should say the young…

Some of the more liberal of the presses here are discussing the question of a zollverein between the United States and Canada. It is…

August 20.—Premising that my three or four months in Canada were intended, among the rest, as an exploration of the line of the St.…

Up these black waters, over a hundred miles—always strong, deep, (hundreds of feet, sometimes thousands,) ever with high, rocky hills for…

But the great, haughty, silent capes themselves; I doubt if any crack points, or hills, or historic places of note, or anything of the kind…

No indeed—life and travel and memory have offer’d and will preserve to me no deeper-cut incidents, panorama, or sights to cheer my soul,…

Grim and rocky and black-water’d as the demesne hereabout is, however, you must not think genial humanity, and comfort, and good-living are…

One time I thought of naming this collection “Cedar-Plums Like” (which I still fancy wouldn’t have been a bad name, nor inappropriate.) A…

Feb. 10, ’81.—And so the flame of the lamp, after long wasting and flickering, has gone out entirely.

There is surely at present an inexplicable rapport (all the more piquant from its contradictoriness) between that deceas’d author and our…

Latter April.—Have run down in my country haunt for a couple of days, and am spending them by the pond. I had already discover’d my…

May 1, ’81.—Seems as if all the ways and means of American travel to-day had been settled, not only with reference to speed and directness,…

In the letters we get from Dr. Schliemann (interesting but fishy) about his excavations there in the far-off Homeric area, I notice cities,…

April 16.—A short but pleasant visit to Longfellow. I am not one of the calling kind, but as the author of “Evangeline” kindly took the…

April 18.—Went out three or four miles to the house of Quincy Shaw, to see a collection of J. F. Millet’s pictures. Two rapt hours. Never…

May 14.—Home again; down temporarily in the Jersey woods. Between 8 and 9 A.M. a full concert of birds, from different quarters, in keeping…

I ought not to offer a record of these days, interests, recuperations, without including a certain old, well-thumb’d common-place book,…

July 25, ’81.—Far Rockaway, L. I.—A good day here, on a jaunt, amid the sand and salt, a steady breeze setting in from the sea, the sun…

August.—In the big city awhile. Even the height of the dog-days, there is a good deal of fun about New York, if you only avoid fluster, and…

Went to-day to see this just-finish’d painting by John Mulvany, who has been out in far Dakota, on the spot, at the forts, and among the…

Aug. 16.—“Chalk a big mark for to-day,” was one of the sayings of an old sportsman-friend of mine, when he had had unusually good luck—come…

Perhaps the best is always cumulative. One’s eating and drinking one wants fresh, and for the nonce, right off, and have done with it—but I…

Concord, Mass.—Out here on a visit—elastic, mellow, Indian-summery weather. Came to-day from Boston, (a pleasant ride of 40 minutes by…

Though the evening at Mr. and Mrs. Sanborn’s, and the memorable family dinner at Mr. and Mrs. Emerson’s, have most pleasantly and…

Oct. 10 –13.—I spend a good deal of time on the Common, these delicious days and nights—every mid-day from 11.30 to about 1—and almost…

Nov., ’81.—Again back in Camden. As I cross the Delaware in long trips to-night, between 9 and 11, the scene overhead is a peculiar…

Jan. 12, ’82.—Such a show as the Delaware presented an hour before sundown yesterday evening, all along between Philadelphia and Camden, is…

Camden, April 3, ’82.—I have just return’d from an old forest haunt, where I love to go occasionally away from parlors, pavements, and the…

Reminiscences— (From the “Camden Courier.”)— As I sat taking my evening sail across the Delaware in the staunch ferryboat “Beverly,” a…

My thoughts went floating on vast and mystic currents as I sat to-day in solitude and half-shade by the creek—returning mainly to two…

May 6, ’82.—We stand by Emerson’s new-made grave without sadness—indeed a solemn joy and faith, almost hauteur—our soul-benison no mere

May 31, ’82.—“From to-day I enter upon my 64th year. The paralysis that first affected me nearly ten years ago, has since remain’d, with…

I tried to read a beautifully printed and scholarly volume on “the Theory of Poetry,” received by mail this morning from England—but gave…

So draw near their end these garrulous notes. There have doubtless occurr’d some repetitions, technical errors in the consecutiveness of…

Democracy most of all affiliates with the open air, is sunny and hardy and sane only with Nature—just as much as Art is. Something is…