The Diary
2003; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 91; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/ajh.2005.0007
ISSN1086-3141
Autores ResumoLyons Joseph Lyons April 29th 1833 Beatum Beatum Savannah Georgia Nihil est ab omni parte Beatum2 De rien je viens, a rien je vais Tout est rien, mais rien n'est.3 A fool told me today, she was Sorry for me and I thought what I here write You are sorry for me!!! Eternal God! Am I then that thing As to excite pity! Give me deep scorn, without disguise, Most rancorous hate, abhorrence Any thing, but pity! By heaven, tis what you feel For the unresisting worm you've carelessly crushed And you pity it, for its impotence, To escape or to retaliate - Am I so gifted - Am I, a poor Crawling, weak despicable reptile If I am then be sorry for me But whilst I feel in my capacious soul A comprehensive power to enfold Passions that in their expansion Would shatter your pigmy soul Into indiscernible atoms Dare not to reduce me To your petty pitiful size And be sorry for me, as, You would for your fellows [End Page 526] Click for larger view Figure 1 First page of Joseph Lyons's diary. Special Collections, College of Charleston Library. Friday May 23 1834 La religion fut partout une invention d'hommes adroits et politques qui ne trouvant pas en eux-memes les moyens de gouverner leurs semblables a leur gre, cherchaient a la ciel la force qui leur manquiat et en firent desacendre la terreur. Histoire Philosophique de[s] deux Indes, p 72 Par l'abbe Raynal4 [End Page 527] Sonnet LXXVII Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear: The dial how thy precious minutes waste, The vacant leaves thy minds imprint willt bear And of this book this learning mayst thou taste. The wrinkles which thy glass will truly shew Of mouthed graves will give them memory Thou by the dials shady stealth mayst know Times thievish progress to eternity. Look, what thy memory cannot contain Commit to these waste blanks & thou shalt find Those children nursed delivered from thy brain To take a new acquaintance of thy mind These offices so oft as those wilt look Shall profit thee & much enrich thy book. Shakespeare Diary Apr 29 1833 warm I arrived in Savannah [Georgia] at 1 AM—I never before knew what it is to be a stranger—nor would I be now conscious of the absence of "those I love now far away", could I read without pain, but a man in my situation,5 what can he do—write c'est tout. And though I have never seen this book before I feel as if restored to the Conversation of a sincere friend, whilst imparting my feelings to the unconscious paper. I have not Journalised for some months past, though I have witnessed more novelty during that time, than in all my preceding existence. I will give a Retrospective Review of all that when I am more in the humor. Here I am in a new land, & have an opportunity of being what I will. I have come to the conclusion that men are not to be admitted to your souls as companions, but the true road to success is to keep aloof, & when you mix with them, let it only be to command. Use them for your own purposes, & if you dance for them, let it be over their heads. All this [End Page 528] is incompatible with sincerity & I do therefore distrust the soundness of this view, however at another time I will examine it.— I took up a Blackstone this morning6 —C'est le premier pas qui conte.7 Click for larger view Figure 2 Firmin Cerveau's View of Savannah, 1837. Georgia Historical Society. June 30th Sunday I recommence writing in my journal after an intermission of 6 months.8 I should have written before but frequent & irritating interruptions from a very, annoying though not painful irritation inflammation of the right eye. It is even now very dim & I doubt its perfect...
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