Books and Ideas (23)

I read for ideas. Here are some of the ideas I have found in books.

Tales and Sketches. Parts One, Two, Three and Four. Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Continued)

“Peter Goldthwaite’s Treasure.” “For Brown never reckoned upon luck, yet always had it, while Peter made luck the main condition of his projects, and always missed it. Your namesake, Peter, was something like yourself, and when the provincial currency had depreciated fifty or seventy-five percent, he bought it up, in expectation of a rise. It is just the sort of capital for building castles in the air.”

“Endicott and the Red Cross.” “We look back through the mist of ages, and recognize, in the rending of the Red Cross from New England’s banner, the first omen of that deliverance which our fathers consummated, after the bones of the stern Puritan had lain more than a century in the dust.”

“Night Sketches: Beneath an Umbrella.” “One blast struggles for her umbrella, and turns it wrong side outward; another whisks the cape of her cloak across her eyes; while a third takes most unwarrantable liberties with the lower part of her attire.”

“The Shaker Bridal!” “When the mission of Mother Ann shall have wrought its full effect—when children shall no more be born and die, and the last survivor of mortal race, some old and weary man like me, shall see the sun go down, never more to rise on a world of sin and sorrow.”

“Footprints on the Sea-Shore.” “Find utterance in the sea’s unchanging voice, and warn the listener to withdraw his interest from mortal vicissitudes, and let the infinite idea of eternity pervade his soul. And when, at noontide, I tread the crowded streets, the influence of this day will still be felt, so that I shall walk among men kindly and as a brother, with affection and sympathy, but yet shall not melt into the indistinguishable mass of human kind.”

“Thomas Green Fessenden.” “ ‘Alliteratively entitled, Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical; Prescribed for the Purpose of Purging the Public of Piddling Philosophers, of Penny Poetaster, of Paltry Politicians, and Petty Partisans…by Peter Pepperbox.’ Everybody who has known Mr. Fessenden must have wondered how the kindest-hearted man in all the world could have likewise been the most noted satirist of his day.”

“Time’s Portraiture.” “Time tells girls that they have nothing to do but dance and sing, and twine roses in their hair, and gather a train of lovers, and that the world will always be like an illuminated ballroom.”

“Snow-Flakes.” “Evening—the early eve of December—begins to spread its deepening veil over the comfortless scene; the fire-light gradually brightens, and throws my flickering shadow upon the walls and ceiling of the chamber, but still the storm rages and rattles against the windows…dead nature in her shroud.”

“The Threefold Destiny: A Fairy Legend.” “Now a credulous man, said Ralph Cranford carelessly to himself, might suppose that the treasure which I have sought round the world lies buried, after all, at the very door of my mother’s dwelling. Happy they who read the riddle without a weary world-search or a lifetime spent in vain.”

“Jonathan Cilley.” “Yet so strong was my conception of his energies—so like Destiny did it appear, that he should achieve everything at which he aimed—that, even now, my fancy will not dwell upon his grave, but pictures him still amid the struggles and triumphs of the present and the future.”