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From June 27, 1907 to Feb 25. 1908 From June 27, 1907 to Feb 25. 1908
June 27, hot dry day 28â€.spent it at SS 29 sprinkles of rain all day becoming a slow rain in late PM 30 Fine rain last night all night, nearly 2 inches much needed, charming and warm July 1st a lovely day after the rain, warm and clear 2nd fine hot day threatened rain sent off paper to outlook on Roosevelt 3rd clear fine day a little cooler, [Charles] and Emma came 4 Lovely day ideal all ay at house 5 Lovely day warm and dry 6 Two heavy showers in PM over 2 inches of rain much needed From 7 to 23 at home much of the time helping J. on the boat, weather hot and rather dry.
23.
Start today on our cruise North stop 4 hours in R. C. joins us, day hot; spend the night in mouth of Esopus at Saugerties. Pleasant sail up, Hudson to Albany stop an hour more in A, a heavy shower at Troy, pass our first lock here, anchor opposite Lansingburgh or North.
24.
Fray, a windy night; Enter the Champlain Canal in morning.
25.
Of 25 Spend two nights in Canal 25th and 26th a delightful cruise in Canal, a field in a boat.
26.
Take dinner at Ft Edward.
27.
Dinner at White Hall. Enter Champlain in p.m. Reach Ft Ticonderoga at 6
Pass the night in the creek.
28.
Sunday, fine sail up or down the lake, anchor at noon and bathe. At 4 1/2 reach Essex, pass the night there.
29.
Start for Irving Bachellers at Robinwood camp, a fine ride with CB, stay at Saranac.
30.
Reach Irving Bachellers at 9 a.m. Spend 4 restful and happy days there, a large kindly brotherly sort of man, like him much. Aug 3. Leave for Essex. Find Emily and Julian there at 1 p.m.
4.
Start on our return trip.
5.
Enter the Canal at noon today. Spend night near Ft Ann.
6.
A fine day, stop for the night at Flynns Lock.
7.
Enter Hudson this morning, pass the night at Coxsackie.
8.
Reach home at 4 1/2, a hot dry day. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Hot dry days. 11 To Slabsides for peace and quiet.
15.
Cooler, but dry as a bone.
16.
Cool, but oh, so dry.
17.
Light rain early this a.m. p.m. five shower at 6, 1/2 inch.
18.
Clear and cool.
19.
Clear and cool - a sad disappointment at P.
19.
Later, news just read of the death of Eds boy Curtis at Roxbury. The news casts a day gloom over us all.
20.
Curtis, Ann, Johnny and Dessie come down to the funeral of little Curtis, a hot day. The little boy's body is buried in a neglected bushy and weedy cemetery at Wester Park.
21.
Hot day.
22.
Curtis and the rest return home today. I accompany them, as far as Phoenicia and go up to the Roxmor.
23.
Pleasant day at R. Rain at night; relieves the great drought a little.
25.
We walk up to my old camping ground and the big spring, creek dry where I used to camp
26.
Take p.m. train for Roxbury. Ed, Ursula on the train. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. At the old home. Weather very cool and dry. Go to Edens on the 29, and stay till next day. E. and Mag fairly well. Sept 1 Cool or cold and dry. Poke about the fields as usual, or sit long and long on the hills.
2.
A light rain in early morning. Return home today, warmer.
3.
Much warmer, a light rain [in] last night. A fine shower later over 1 inch rain, with much thunder. Ground much refreshed.
4.
Warm, a fine shower last night, about an inch.
5.
Warm, raining, a heavy shower last night and slow rain nearly all night. 3 or 4 inches of water this week. Well, these days, little or no palpitation. Sleep well and eat sparingly - no eggs. Reading a little, but not writing, at home the past 4 days. Expect to go away on Saturday.
-How scarce the birds seemed to be during the drought that has just closed, hardly a bird of any kind away where. Where were they? Probably hunting their food in damp or bushy places. Now the rain has come the birds appear on every hand.
6.
Clearing, cooler.
7.
To M. in p.m. C.B. well.
8.
Overcast all day, indoors
with C.B. and sunshine.
9.
Overcast and warm, light rain. To the Va in evening to tea with C.B.
10.
Warm, muggy; home today. Company at Slabsides.
11.
Rainy, warm.
12.
Off for Roxmore. Stay to R. till Sunday p.m. and have a pleasant time. Weather fine.
15. Home tonight, a warm day.
17.
Off for Peconic, reach Rowlands at 7 p.m.
18.
Cloudy, cool, windy. Stay ro R's till the 24th and gain 4 or 5 lbs. Enjoy it all greatly, does me lots of good. Weather warm. but windy and much cloud, and some rain
24.
To N.Y. today, cool.
25.
Back home today, cool.
26.
Cloudy, cold. Feel very well. Write a letter to the Hampden county leader in answer to their editorial on "Nature Fukers," about 900 words.
27.
A cold night, almost frost, cloudy and cold today. A fire in my study. Grapes about 2/3 off.
28.
Cloudy and light rain.
29.
North E. storm, rain all night and nearly all day. Cold ground full of water.
30.
Clearing, mild. Writing a little. Oct 1st. Clear, cool; fire in study. Health and spirit good. Letter from C.B.
-The most abundant mineral in the world, aluminum we do not see at all as a metal. It must be extracted from the clay. 2d, 3d. Fine cool days, at work on "Leap and Tendent"
4.
An old fashioned N.E. rain nearly all day.
5.
Clearing and fine.
6.
Fine day; a sail on the river.
7.
Sun and cloud, mild. J. and E. off for L.J. this morning. Warmer in p.m.
8.
S.W. rain in the night and this morning, warm.
-The smothered fires of the woodbine are beginning to burn in the cedars
-I was interested in seeing that the sycamore that lost their leaves early last June, did not develop new birds on the wood that held the dead leaves, but that they put out new shoots from the wood of the year before; that is, all last years, twigs were killed and the whole work had to be done over again. The tree could evolve a new shoot, but not a new bud.
-The vineyards is alive with robins this morning, as it has been nearly every morning of late, and not withstanding the rain, they seem to be having a picnic and holiday; they squeal and sing and call, and laugh and dart about precisely like a lot of children never was the holiday spirit more apparent. What it is that tickles them all so - how I wish I knew.
9. The ground overflowing with water again. A sudden change after the rain yesterday to cold, clear and windy in p.m. Clear, cold this morning, a severe frost back of the hill a little on this slope.
-The untrained, unthinking mind finds it so much easier to refer the world as we see it to the creature act of an omnipotent being than to try to account for it by the slow and complex process of evolution. It is a short cut. It saves thinking and observation. The theory of evolution gives you something to do, but the miraculous theory does not. Postulate your omnipotent man-god, and the rest is easy.
10, 11. Clear, cold.
12.
Fine mild day, C.B comes.
13.
Fine day. Big day at S.S, Julian and E and children at dinner.
14.
To Cornwall and a climb to Storm King with Clara Reed and Miss Stellman. Glorious day.
15.
Fine day, Miss Freligh and Mrs. Finch come. 16 and 17. At SS.
17.
Company leaves. Boat trip to R. a fine still Oct day.
18.
Colder.
19.
Fine day; to West Point to see Yale football game. Stay with the Dentons.
20.
Rain and cold; home in p.m. a great scare over Nelsa, who ate 3 bottles of
Homeopathic medicine, and was little the worse.
21.
Clear, cold, the coldest so far, down to 30. 22, 23d. Clear mild days.
24. Clear, colder.
-The glorified forests - how they feast the eye with color. Some of the maples are like veritable torches of flames. Leaves half off the vineyard.
-To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your fact is quite another.
-Why we are apt to be disappointed when we go back to the old home, is this; in our thoughts we actually go back to [the] our youth. We see the old scenes as they were to our youthful eyes. But when we go back in reality
something is missing; our youth has fled and we see the old scenes with the eyes of today. The person that dreamed of the old place is not the person that now looks upon it.
25.
Bright, cold.
26.
Bright, cold. C.B. and Dr. F. come to S.S.
27.
Milder, cloudy, rain in late p.m.
28.
Heavy rain all night, and nearly all this forenoon, from South, - rained all day.
29.
Rained all night with high wind from W. and N.W. and nearly all day. It rained till the last cat was hung - the last cloud was drained, for when it stopped the blue sky was in sight, 5 or 6 inches of water.
30.
Clear and cool, a pretty night. This morning on the road and road side, figures of leaves everywhere
Elm, maple, sycamore - not mere imprints in the mud, but raised figures of the leaves on the coarse ground. It appears that the continued heavy rains separated the fine particles of the soil and collected them under the leaves making a perfect caste of each leaf - a clay model executed with great beauty and precision, as soon as the leaves dried they lifted up and revealed this model beneath them.
31.
Clear, cool, frost last night, bright, lovely day. Nov 1. Lovely mild day, leaves falling. Some leaves have indeed a green old age. The leaves of the mulberry fall slain by the frost, like soldiers slain in battle, with all their powers in full force. They drop heavily these frosty mornings apparently untouched by the ripening processes that so
seem to effect the sunshine to diffuse their own color into it, or to give back to it the light they have been so long absorbing; the day lays upon the earth like a great golden leaf fallen from the tree of Yggdrasil. 2d. Fair and cool. Rowland comes go over to S.S, Slack comes in p.m. raining.
3.
Rained all night heavy, clearing in morning. Heffley comes. A stay party at S.S, Julian to dinner.
4.
Fine day, H. and S. off for N.Y. on river in p.m. in boat a pleasant time.
5.
Fine day, party of 25 from Mt. Vernon, Rowland goes hunting - no luck.
6.
Began raining at day light. Rained hard all
day, a dark, dismall day. R an dI sit indoors.
7.
Rained all night, a 24 hours downpour from all points of the compass. Clearing by noon, R. leaves.
8.
Fine day, still at S.S.
9.
Fine day and mild. Ernest Harold Baynes comes, like him much. A sincere truth loving man. His information very accurate. We have much talk.
10.
Rain again till p.m. Alone at S.S, writing a little. Health good.
nothing can be lost - of this I am sure, just as surely as all the elements of my body and all the forces of my mind existed somewhere in some form before I was born, just so surely will they exist somewhere in some form after I am dead. But the consciousness, the me, how about that? All analogy points to its cessation, motion is not a thing, an entity, it is an effect of a thing. The flame ceases - goes out as we say, a process is stopped but the elements that took part in the process still go on. Was the flame an entity apart from the process?
Consciousness an entity? What remains after it ceases, is the capacity for consciousness in matter material things do not cease, they change, but ideas, on our impression of material things cease. In fact I find it impossible to cover consciousness and keep it. The iridescent lives of a birds feather, are not in the feather, are not fixed colors, but only the effect of the play of light through the feathers. The rainbow fades and yet nothing is destroyed; our sensation of it ceases, and the conditions that make that which makes the sensation cease, We fade from life, a process is arrested, a motion is stayed; we become only a memory in other mind. And when these other minds are gone and the lost elements of our bodies has found its place in nature where it was before it formed part of us. Where are we then? Is our identity a thing that can be added to as taken from? Is consciousness a part of the universe, or only one of the phenomenon of matter? If it ceases is anything lost? Life ceases as we will know, is anything lost then? When a bubble burst, what is lost?
11.
Cool, fair, still at S.S. At night set before the open fire with my dog and read James on Pragmatism a stimulating and delightful philosophical argument - good literature and good logic.
12.
Fair, cool, frost each night.
14. Stay at S.S till today; getting colder. In N.Y. from 16th to 21st stay at the Rowlands. Birthday celebration on Sunday 17th. See C.B. Sat night and on Sunday.
23.
Fair cool day. Vassar girls.
24.
Rain and snow from NE.
25.
An inch of frozen icy snow this morning.
26.
Light snow.
27.
Raw, cloudy, chilly weather.
28.
Only light frost last night. Partly cloudy today. Thanksgiving at home. Work on Leaf and Tendrel.
29.
Bright mild day, streak of snow here and there.
30.
Fair day. Go to M. Dec 1st. Cold in M. meet C.B.
2.
Cold, light snow. Go up to Caufields.
3.
Cold, writing, reading all day. C.B. at night.
4.
Cold. Indoors all day.
5.
Windy, cold. C.B. at night, working on Leaf and Tendrel.
6.
Home today, milder.
7.
Calm, mild, clear day. Indian summer haze.
8.
Indian summer haze. Comapny at SS, fine N.Y. Mercury 24, in morning.
25. Xmas, mild, with some hard snow yet on the ground; floating ice in river. Health good, better the last year. Eat [velvet] duck at R. At Slabsides, my dog and I since the 11, a good time, writing each day, and getting "Leaf and Tendrel" ready. Much enjoy the quiet and the living close to the borne. On the 14th came our first considerable snow - a plump foot - good sleighing till the 22d when it rained hard all day. Mild since then. No frost in ground. Mercury not below 18 this month. Few tracks on the snow. Fexes, rabbits, and now other a partridge.
27. All went well with my dog and we at Slabsides till today, when I lost my grip and in p.m. became dull and heavy, followed by fever e.t.c. Went over to Riverby
28, 29, 30, 31. At Riverby ill - like last year but not so severe - fever 102, with chilly sensations, and inclination to in down. 1908 Jany 1st. Lovely day, snow nearly all gone, no ice in river. Better today, fever gone. Eating a little. 2d. Lovely day, only a few degrees of frost. Go to P. much better. 3d. Lovely day, nearly well. All my trouble came from stoppage and clogging of bowells. 4, 5, 6. At M. cold Sunday night down to 8 at W.P.
7.
To N.Y. rain in p.m. Snow at W.P. Home today, quite well again.
8.
Mild, 2 or 3 inches of snow on ground, correcting proof of "Leaf and Tendril"
9.
Snow flurry, mild.
10.
Clear still ,day, not a cloud not a breeze, mercury in morning 14.
11.
Bright day mercury 18. Fairly good sleighing of icy snow spend the day at S.S. Correcting the proof L. and T. these days. No ,ice to speak of in the river yet.
12.
Rain from N.E. Rained all day and hard at night.
13.
Clearing, warm, 45 degrees, snow badly whipped. 14 and 15. Mild days.
16.
Mild, cloudy, clearing and colder in p.m.
17.
Down to 20 this morning. Bright fine day.
18.
Mercury at 30 this morning. Partly cloudy, soon clearing a bright mild lovely day like Nov.
19.
Mild, mercury 35, windy, roads
getting dry, only streaks of snow here and there.
20.
Clear and colder, down to 20 this morning.
21.
A lovely Indian summer day, like the finest November weather. Insects dancing in the air. Mercury above 50. 22d. Mild, mercury 51.
-Who has not observed how an inanimate object caught and held by counter currents of water or air, simulates a thing of life, struggling to escape, watching its chances, turning uneasily, edging this way, then that. Try to remove a speck from your tea with a spoon, and the thing seems to know your design at once and eludes you and rushes away when cornered in the stranged manner. What a pain it is in when nearly caught!
22d. Still mild and fair, no snow, mercury 50.
23.
Start for Atlantic City at 12.15. Mild, but cloudy.
24.
At A.C. a whirling driving snow storm all day, the first snow here.
25.
Cold and slush and snow over all. 26, 27, 28. At Berkshire Inn.
28. To Miss Stockleys house today, my old quarters of last spring. 29, 30, 31. Pretty cold. Feel well and am at work. Feb 3. Terrible news from C.B. Her fathers house at Port Byron burned and her father suffocated.
7. C.B's mother dies today. What a leaping measure of calamity
for so gentle and affectionate a heart.
9. Fair cold day. Walk to Ventnor and back - 8 miles easily.
17. A fine week. Rain and fog 13th and 15th Finish my writing. Mild today. Start for N.Y. in p.m. Spend week in N.Y. meet C.B. and A. on their return from P.B. on the 24th.
25. Return to A.C. today.
June 27, hot dry day 28â€.spent it at SS 29 sprinkles of rain all day becoming a slow rain in late PM 30 Fine rain last night all night, nearly 2 inches much needed, charming and warm July 1st a lovely day after the rain, warm and clear 2nd fine hot day threatened rain sent off paper to outlook on Roosevelt 3rd clear fine day a little cooler, [Charles] and Emma came 4 Lovely day ideal all ay at house 5 Lovely day warm and dry 6 Two heavy showers in PM over 2 inches of rain much needed From 7 to 23 at home much of the time helping J. on the boat, weather hot and rather dry.
23.
Start today on our cruise North stop 4 hours in R. C. joins us, day hot; spend the night in mouth of Esopus at Saugerties. Pleasant sail up, Hudson to Albany stop an hour more in A, a heavy shower at Troy, pass our first lock here, anchor opposite Lansingburgh or North.
24.
Fray, a windy night; Enter the Champlain Canal in morning.
25.
Of 25 Spend two nights in Canal 25th and 26th a delightful cruise in Canal, a field in a boat.
26.
Take dinner at Ft Edward.
27.
Dinner at White Hall. Enter Champlain in p.m. Reach Ft Ticonderoga at 6
Pass the night in the creek.
28.
Sunday, fine sail up or down the lake, anchor at noon and bathe. At 4 1/2 reach Essex, pass the night there.
29.
Start for Irving Bachellers at Robinwood camp, a fine ride with CB, stay at Saranac.
30.
Reach Irving Bachellers at 9 a.m. Spend 4 restful and happy days there, a large kindly brotherly sort of man, like him much. Aug 3. Leave for Essex. Find Emily and Julian there at 1 p.m.
4.
Start on our return trip.
5.
Enter the Canal at noon today. Spend night near Ft Ann.
6.
A fine day, stop for the night at Flynns Lock.
7.
Enter Hudson this morning, pass the night at Coxsackie.
8.
Reach home at 4 1/2, a hot dry day. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Hot dry days. 11 To Slabsides for peace and quiet.
15.
Cooler, but dry as a bone.
16.
Cool, but oh, so dry.
17.
Light rain early this a.m. p.m. five shower at 6, 1/2 inch.
18.
Clear and cool.
19.
Clear and cool - a sad disappointment at P.
19.
Later, news just read of the death of Eds boy Curtis at Roxbury. The news casts a day gloom over us all.
20.
Curtis, Ann, Johnny and Dessie come down to the funeral of little Curtis, a hot day. The little boy's body is buried in a neglected bushy and weedy cemetery at Wester Park.
21.
Hot day.
22.
Curtis and the rest return home today. I accompany them, as far as Phoenicia and go up to the Roxmor.
23.
Pleasant day at R. Rain at night; relieves the great drought a little.
25.
We walk up to my old camping ground and the big spring, creek dry where I used to camp
26.
Take p.m. train for Roxbury. Ed, Ursula on the train. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. At the old home. Weather very cool and dry. Go to Edens on the 29, and stay till next day. E. and Mag fairly well. Sept 1 Cool or cold and dry. Poke about the fields as usual, or sit long and long on the hills.
2.
A light rain in early morning. Return home today, warmer.
3.
Much warmer, a light rain [in] last night. A fine shower later over 1 inch rain, with much thunder. Ground much refreshed.
4.
Warm, a fine shower last night, about an inch.
5.
Warm, raining, a heavy shower last night and slow rain nearly all night. 3 or 4 inches of water this week. Well, these days, little or no palpitation. Sleep well and eat sparingly - no eggs. Reading a little, but not writing, at home the past 4 days. Expect to go away on Saturday.
-How scarce the birds seemed to be during the drought that has just closed, hardly a bird of any kind away where. Where were they? Probably hunting their food in damp or bushy places. Now the rain has come the birds appear on every hand.
6.
Clearing, cooler.
7.
To M. in p.m. C.B. well.
8.
Overcast all day, indoors
with C.B. and sunshine.
9.
Overcast and warm, light rain. To the Va in evening to tea with C.B.
10.
Warm, muggy; home today. Company at Slabsides.
11.
Rainy, warm.
12.
Off for Roxmore. Stay to R. till Sunday p.m. and have a pleasant time. Weather fine.
15. Home tonight, a warm day.
17.
Off for Peconic, reach Rowlands at 7 p.m.
18.
Cloudy, cool, windy. Stay ro R's till the 24th and gain 4 or 5 lbs. Enjoy it all greatly, does me lots of good. Weather warm. but windy and much cloud, and some rain
24.
To N.Y. today, cool.
25.
Back home today, cool.
26.
Cloudy, cold. Feel very well. Write a letter to the Hampden county leader in answer to their editorial on "Nature Fukers," about 900 words.
27.
A cold night, almost frost, cloudy and cold today. A fire in my study. Grapes about 2/3 off.
28.
Cloudy and light rain.
29.
North E. storm, rain all night and nearly all day. Cold ground full of water.
30.
Clearing, mild. Writing a little. Oct 1st. Clear, cool; fire in study. Health and spirit good. Letter from C.B.
-The most abundant mineral in the world, aluminum we do not see at all as a metal. It must be extracted from the clay. 2d, 3d. Fine cool days, at work on "Leap and Tendent"
4.
An old fashioned N.E. rain nearly all day.
5.
Clearing and fine.
6.
Fine day; a sail on the river.
7.
Sun and cloud, mild. J. and E. off for L.J. this morning. Warmer in p.m.
8.
S.W. rain in the night and this morning, warm.
-The smothered fires of the woodbine are beginning to burn in the cedars
-I was interested in seeing that the sycamore that lost their leaves early last June, did not develop new birds on the wood that held the dead leaves, but that they put out new shoots from the wood of the year before; that is, all last years, twigs were killed and the whole work had to be done over again. The tree could evolve a new shoot, but not a new bud.
-The vineyards is alive with robins this morning, as it has been nearly every morning of late, and not withstanding the rain, they seem to be having a picnic and holiday; they squeal and sing and call, and laugh and dart about precisely like a lot of children never was the holiday spirit more apparent. What it is that tickles them all so - how I wish I knew.
9. The ground overflowing with water again. A sudden change after the rain yesterday to cold, clear and windy in p.m. Clear, cold this morning, a severe frost back of the hill a little on this slope.
-The untrained, unthinking mind finds it so much easier to refer the world as we see it to the creature act of an omnipotent being than to try to account for it by the slow and complex process of evolution. It is a short cut. It saves thinking and observation. The theory of evolution gives you something to do, but the miraculous theory does not. Postulate your omnipotent man-god, and the rest is easy.
10, 11. Clear, cold.
12.
Fine mild day, C.B comes.
13.
Fine day. Big day at S.S, Julian and E and children at dinner.
14.
To Cornwall and a climb to Storm King with Clara Reed and Miss Stellman. Glorious day.
15.
Fine day, Miss Freligh and Mrs. Finch come. 16 and 17. At SS.
17.
Company leaves. Boat trip to R. a fine still Oct day.
18.
Colder.
19.
Fine day; to West Point to see Yale football game. Stay with the Dentons.
20.
Rain and cold; home in p.m. a great scare over Nelsa, who ate 3 bottles of
Homeopathic medicine, and was little the worse.
21.
Clear, cold, the coldest so far, down to 30. 22, 23d. Clear mild days.
24. Clear, colder.
-The glorified forests - how they feast the eye with color. Some of the maples are like veritable torches of flames. Leaves half off the vineyard.
-To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, to imagine your fact is quite another.
-Why we are apt to be disappointed when we go back to the old home, is this; in our thoughts we actually go back to [the] our youth. We see the old scenes as they were to our youthful eyes. But when we go back in reality
something is missing; our youth has fled and we see the old scenes with the eyes of today. The person that dreamed of the old place is not the person that now looks upon it.
25.
Bright, cold.
26.
Bright, cold. C.B. and Dr. F. come to S.S.
27.
Milder, cloudy, rain in late p.m.
28.
Heavy rain all night, and nearly all this forenoon, from South, - rained all day.
29.
Rained all night with high wind from W. and N.W. and nearly all day. It rained till the last cat was hung - the last cloud was drained, for when it stopped the blue sky was in sight, 5 or 6 inches of water.
30.
Clear and cool, a pretty night. This morning on the road and road side, figures of leaves everywhere
Elm, maple, sycamore - not mere imprints in the mud, but raised figures of the leaves on the coarse ground. It appears that the continued heavy rains separated the fine particles of the soil and collected them under the leaves making a perfect caste of each leaf - a clay model executed with great beauty and precision, as soon as the leaves dried they lifted up and revealed this model beneath them.
31.
Clear, cool, frost last night, bright, lovely day. Nov 1. Lovely mild day, leaves falling. Some leaves have indeed a green old age. The leaves of the mulberry fall slain by the frost, like soldiers slain in battle, with all their powers in full force. They drop heavily these frosty mornings apparently untouched by the ripening processes that so
seem to effect the sunshine to diffuse their own color into it, or to give back to it the light they have been so long absorbing; the day lays upon the earth like a great golden leaf fallen from the tree of Yggdrasil. 2d. Fair and cool. Rowland comes go over to S.S, Slack comes in p.m. raining.
3.
Rained all night heavy, clearing in morning. Heffley comes. A stay party at S.S, Julian to dinner.
4.
Fine day, H. and S. off for N.Y. on river in p.m. in boat a pleasant time.
5.
Fine day, party of 25 from Mt. Vernon, Rowland goes hunting - no luck.
6.
Began raining at day light. Rained hard all
day, a dark, dismall day. R an dI sit indoors.
7.
Rained all night, a 24 hours downpour from all points of the compass. Clearing by noon, R. leaves.
8.
Fine day, still at S.S.
9.
Fine day and mild. Ernest Harold Baynes comes, like him much. A sincere truth loving man. His information very accurate. We have much talk.
10.
Rain again till p.m. Alone at S.S, writing a little. Health good.
nothing can be lost - of this I am sure, just as surely as all the elements of my body and all the forces of my mind existed somewhere in some form before I was born, just so surely will they exist somewhere in some form after I am dead. But the consciousness, the me, how about that? All analogy points to its cessation, motion is not a thing, an entity, it is an effect of a thing. The flame ceases - goes out as we say, a process is stopped but the elements that took part in the process still go on. Was the flame an entity apart from the process?
Consciousness an entity? What remains after it ceases, is the capacity for consciousness in matter material things do not cease, they change, but ideas, on our impression of material things cease. In fact I find it impossible to cover consciousness and keep it. The iridescent lives of a birds feather, are not in the feather, are not fixed colors, but only the effect of the play of light through the feathers. The rainbow fades and yet nothing is destroyed; our sensation of it ceases, and the conditions that make that which makes the sensation cease, We fade from life, a process is arrested, a motion is stayed; we become only a memory in other mind. And when these other minds are gone and the lost elements of our bodies has found its place in nature where it was before it formed part of us. Where are we then? Is our identity a thing that can be added to as taken from? Is consciousness a part of the universe, or only one of the phenomenon of matter? If it ceases is anything lost? Life ceases as we will know, is anything lost then? When a bubble burst, what is lost?
11.
Cool, fair, still at S.S. At night set before the open fire with my dog and read James on Pragmatism a stimulating and delightful philosophical argument - good literature and good logic.
12.
Fair, cool, frost each night.
14. Stay at S.S till today; getting colder. In N.Y. from 16th to 21st stay at the Rowlands. Birthday celebration on Sunday 17th. See C.B. Sat night and on Sunday.
23.
Fair cool day. Vassar girls.
24.
Rain and snow from NE.
25.
An inch of frozen icy snow this morning.
26.
Light snow.
27.
Raw, cloudy, chilly weather.
28.
Only light frost last night. Partly cloudy today. Thanksgiving at home. Work on Leaf and Tendrel.
29.
Bright mild day, streak of snow here and there.
30.
Fair day. Go to M. Dec 1st. Cold in M. meet C.B.
2.
Cold, light snow. Go up to Caufields.
3.
Cold, writing, reading all day. C.B. at night.
4.
Cold. Indoors all day.
5.
Windy, cold. C.B. at night, working on Leaf and Tendrel.
6.
Home today, milder.
7.
Calm, mild, clear day. Indian summer haze.
8.
Indian summer haze. Comapny at SS, fine N.Y. Mercury 24, in morning.
25. Xmas, mild, with some hard snow yet on the ground; floating ice in river. Health good, better the last year. Eat [velvet] duck at R. At Slabsides, my dog and I since the 11, a good time, writing each day, and getting "Leaf and Tendrel" ready. Much enjoy the quiet and the living close to the borne. On the 14th came our first considerable snow - a plump foot - good sleighing till the 22d when it rained hard all day. Mild since then. No frost in ground. Mercury not below 18 this month. Few tracks on the snow. Fexes, rabbits, and now other a partridge.
27. All went well with my dog and we at Slabsides till today, when I lost my grip and in p.m. became dull and heavy, followed by fever e.t.c. Went over to Riverby
28, 29, 30, 31. At Riverby ill - like last year but not so severe - fever 102, with chilly sensations, and inclination to in down. 1908 Jany 1st. Lovely day, snow nearly all gone, no ice in river. Better today, fever gone. Eating a little. 2d. Lovely day, only a few degrees of frost. Go to P. much better. 3d. Lovely day, nearly well. All my trouble came from stoppage and clogging of bowells. 4, 5, 6. At M. cold Sunday night down to 8 at W.P.
7.
To N.Y. rain in p.m. Snow at W.P. Home today, quite well again.
8.
Mild, 2 or 3 inches of snow on ground, correcting proof of "Leaf and Tendril"
9.
Snow flurry, mild.
10.
Clear still ,day, not a cloud not a breeze, mercury in morning 14.
11.
Bright day mercury 18. Fairly good sleighing of icy snow spend the day at S.S. Correcting the proof L. and T. these days. No ,ice to speak of in the river yet.
12.
Rain from N.E. Rained all day and hard at night.
13.
Clearing, warm, 45 degrees, snow badly whipped. 14 and 15. Mild days.
16.
Mild, cloudy, clearing and colder in p.m.
17.
Down to 20 this morning. Bright fine day.
18.
Mercury at 30 this morning. Partly cloudy, soon clearing a bright mild lovely day like Nov.
19.
Mild, mercury 35, windy, roads
getting dry, only streaks of snow here and there.
20.
Clear and colder, down to 20 this morning.
21.
A lovely Indian summer day, like the finest November weather. Insects dancing in the air. Mercury above 50. 22d. Mild, mercury 51.
-Who has not observed how an inanimate object caught and held by counter currents of water or air, simulates a thing of life, struggling to escape, watching its chances, turning uneasily, edging this way, then that. Try to remove a speck from your tea with a spoon, and the thing seems to know your design at once and eludes you and rushes away when cornered in the stranged manner. What a pain it is in when nearly caught!
22d. Still mild and fair, no snow, mercury 50.
23.
Start for Atlantic City at 12.15. Mild, but cloudy.
24.
At A.C. a whirling driving snow storm all day, the first snow here.
25.
Cold and slush and snow over all. 26, 27, 28. At Berkshire Inn.
28. To Miss Stockleys house today, my old quarters of last spring. 29, 30, 31. Pretty cold. Feel well and am at work. Feb 3. Terrible news from C.B. Her fathers house at Port Byron burned and her father suffocated.
7. C.B's mother dies today. What a leaping measure of calamity
for so gentle and affectionate a heart.
9. Fair cold day. Walk to Ventnor and back - 8 miles easily.
17. A fine week. Rain and fog 13th and 15th Finish my writing. Mild today. Start for N.Y. in p.m. Spend week in N.Y. meet C.B. and A. on their return from P.B. on the 24th.
25. Return to A.C. today.
