It seems a greater pity that an accomplished worker with the hand should perish prematurely, than a person of great intellect; because intellectual arts may be cultivated in the next world, but not physical ones. To trace out the influence of a frightful and disgraceful crime in debasing and destroying a character naturally high and… Continue reading Three ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
Some man of powerful character to command a person, morally subjected to him, to perform some act. The commanding person suddenly to die; and, for all the rest of his life, the subjected one continues to perform that act. “Solomon dies during the building of the temple, but his body remains leaning on a staff,… Continue reading Five ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
May 23d.–I think the face of nature can never look more beautiful than now, with this so fresh and youthful green,–the trees not being fully in leaf, yet enough so to give airy shade to the woods. The sunshine fills them with green light. Monument Mountain and its brethren are green, and the lightness of… Continue reading The face of nature can never look more beautiful than now (May 23, 1851 entry from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books)
May 11, 1838.–At Boston last week. Items:–A young man, with a small mustache, dyed brown, reddish from its original light color. He walks with an affected gait, his arms crooked outwards, treading much on his toes. His conversation is about the theatre, where he has a season ticket,–about an amateur who lately appeared there, and… Continue reading May 11, 1838 entry from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections, as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots. Cupid in these latter times has probably laid aside his bow and arrows, and uses fire-arms,–a pistol,–perhaps a revolver. I… Continue reading Cupid, caresses, fire and death (Three notes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books)
Imitators of original authors might be compared to plaster casts of marble statues, or the imitative book to a cast of the original marble. For a child’s story,–the voyage of a little boat made of a chip, with a birch-bark sail, down a river. Fourier states that, in the progress of the world,… Continue reading Six Notes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
The spells of witches have the power of producing meats and viands that have the appearance of a sumptuous feast, which the Devil furnishes: But a Divine Providence seldom permits the meat to be good, but it has generally some bad taste or smell,–mostly wants salt,–and the feast is often without bread. An article… Continue reading An article on cemeteries, and other ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
For the virtuoso’s collection,–the pen with which Faust signed away his salvation, with a drop of blood dried in it. An article on newspaper advertisements,–a country newspaper, methinks, rather than a city one. An eating-house, where all the dishes served out, even to the bread and salt, shall be poisoned with the adulterations that are… Continue reading Five Ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
“A story there passeth of an Indian king that sent unto Alexander a fair woman, fed with aconite and other poisons, with this intent complexionally to destroy him!” –Sir T. Browne. Dialogues of the unborn, like dialogues of the dead,–or between two young children. A mortal symptom for a person being to lose his own… Continue reading “To have ice in one’s blood” (And other ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books)
When scattered clouds are resting on the bosoms of hills, it seems as if one might climb into the heavenly region, earth being so intermixed with sky, and gradually transformed into it. A stranger, dying, is buried; and after many years two strangers come in search of his grave, and open it. The strange sensation… Continue reading “A very fanciful person, when dead, to have his burial in a cloud” (And other ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books)
All the dead that had ever been drowned in a certain lake to arise. Character of a man who, in himself and his external circumstances, shall be equally and totally false: his fortune resting on baseless credit,–his patriotism assumed,–his domestic affections, his honor and honesty, all a sham. His own misery in the midst of… Continue reading Five Story Ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
Thursday, September 1st.–Mr. Thoreau dined with us yesterday. . . . He is a keen and delicate observer of nature,–a genuine observer,–which, I suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child, and shows him secrets which few others… Continue reading September 1st, 1848 | From Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
Punishment of a miser,–to pay the drafts of his heir in his tomb. A series of strange, mysterious, dreadful events to occur, wholly destructive of a person’s happiness. He to impute them to various persons and causes, but ultimately finds that he is himself the sole agent. Moral, that our welfare depends on ourselves. The strange incident in… Continue reading Four Notes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
A letter, written a century or more ago, but which has never yet been unsealed. A partially insane man to believe himself the Provincial Governor or other great official of Massachusetts. The scene might be the Province House. A dreadful secret to be communicated to several people of various characters,–grave or gay, and they all to become… Continue reading Six Notes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American Note-Books
On being transported to strange scenes, we feel as if all were unreal. This is but the perception of the true unreality of earthly things, made evident by the want of congruity between ourselves and them. By and by we become mutually adapted, and the perception is lost. An old looking-glass. Somebody finds out the secret of… Continue reading Seven Notes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American Note-Books
On being transported to strange scenes, we feel as if all were unreal. This is but the perception of the true unreality of earthly things, made evident by the want of congruity between ourselves and them. By and by we become mutually adapted, and the perception is lost. An old looking-glass. Somebody finds out the secret of… Continue reading Ten Notes from Hawthorne’s Note-Books
A house to be built over a natural spring of inflammable gas, and to be constantly illuminated therewith. What moral could be drawn from this? It is carburetted hydrogen gas, and is cooled from a soft shale or slate, which is sometimes bituminous, and contains more or less carbonate of lime. It appears in the… Continue reading “To poison a person or a party of persons with the sacramental wine” and other ideas from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Note-Books
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