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Untitled Article
rial ( from an alarm of fire or some such cause ) had stuck together whatever parts were nearest , to be sorted afterwards . One also might suppose—that it is breakfast time . It is not wholesome ever to pass an entire day in utter idlesse . I do not mean to advance such an absurdity as that the enjoyment of nature can be the loss of time . I leave that for those who in their ceaseless occupation do , in fact , lose all their time , and know not what a treasure they lose . But all enjoyment is the richer for the contiguity of honest mental occupation . The steady employment of , though it be but an hour or two , will spread a satisfaction over the day , and spiritualize its sportiveness , and prevent its pleasure from becoming fade , and preserve the elasticity of the springs within us . Away , then , to the woodland study ; and be it a study in right earnest . One may meditate there ; and , thanks to dictation , composition is but thinking aloud , with the double advantage of uninterrupted thought , and a consciousness of the presence of the recording spirit . The mechanical act of writing is a sore nuisance ; at least to me . I never can write contemporaneously with my thoughts .
They pass ; and I only put down my recollections , often a faint shadow . And then a silent , intelligent amanuensis ; had J possessed such a treasure , that vigorous originality of his would never have run away with him ,, a madder race than that of the wild horse of Mazeppa . He ruined himself by being his own penman . A presence which he respected would have made him respect his own intellectual reputation ; and it might have been a
bright and useful one , lasting and growing too . So , to work : on the shady bench , behind the belt of oak trees , that screen both the landscape and the sun . The senses are undistracted there , and the stream of thought flows clear , and pure , and brightly . He must be a bold man who could dare to be a sophist there , in the presence of God and nature ; and a base one who could there prepare for the world aught that tends not to humanize the affections and elevate the soul .
What was there prepared may be some day judged of ; its introduction here would be rather too long an episode . I have some conscience about digression , though rather lax . Not so about intellectual labour . I mean by that , active mental operation ; not mere reading . And yet reading should have its share of the day too , or it will not be a good day of pleasure , unless in
travelling through a very extraordinary country , and with very extraordinary companions . All scenes have their appropriate books ; and all books have their appropriate scenes , except the Bible , which is universal ; and Shakspeare , which is next to it . Milton is much less so ; he is for lawns , and stately avenues , and antique mansions ; or lor ( he stern simplicity of such a coast as Sandowne . Books should have a harmony of spirit with the locality , not an identity of subject . One does not want to read
Untitled Article
420 Local Logic .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/60/
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