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September 2 (Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.)
The insect called a damselfly — its slender, long body — looks like a living straw when it flies a little way from the eyes.
September 4.
The rain that falls rises again as vapor; the vapors fall again as rain. And through this eternal circle of circulation a quantity of moisture is eternally maintained, always equal and the same. So it is with the other elements.
September 5.
The tithe of days...
Thursday, September 6. (At the Clos, a day of thunder.)
If, while looking at the clouds and dreaming, one chooses to attend to their shape, one sees nothing but what is hideous. If one attends only to colors and movements, one sees nothing but what is agreeable. Who, having made this observation, will waste the time given him for this pleasure on looking at the shape of clouds instead of observing their tints. Let us consider forms where there are forms, and colors where there are colors.
Cavernous clouds. It is in them that thunder forms...
Extinguished thunder... Casts a last glimmer...
Let some concern themselves with the body, others with the soul of the world.
September 6 in the evening.
The moral effect of these much-recommended kinds of music was to hold the soul and the senses in harmony for a few moments and accustom men to what the sages of India call “the proper mean.” An effect doubtless admirable and of great usefulness. But prayer does as much; and it is within our reach, at our disposal in every place, at every time. What can I tell you? It mingles with every occupation, even with every amusement, without making pleasure less keen or work any slower.
September 7.
For the note on Aristotle.
It is a contract between the strong man and the thinker, made without their own knowledge. — Lifelong domestic service, an enslavement consented to; and not merely consented to, but debated and stipulated. — The magistrate must first examine whether there is inferiority and superiority of nature and destiny, or whether fortune gives one the power to give and the other the need to receive; finally, whether the unchanging interest of the one who wishes to obey depends on the one who wishes to command. — A slave in his own person, a hereditary slave; birth requires it of one, nature of the other. — Arrange things so that intelligence governs.
September ….
It would be strange if style were indeed beautiful only when it has some obscurity, that is, some clouds; and perhaps this is true when that obscurity comes from its very excellence, from the choice of words that are not common, the choice of turns of phrase that are not vulgar. What is certain is that what is beautiful always has at once some visible beauty and some hidden beauty. What is also certain is that what is beautiful never has so much charm for us as when we read it attentively in a language we only half understand.
Yes, Lord, you yourself stretch out your hand to smooth the bed of the just man; you turn his mattress.
If he lies on his bed of pain, may heaven spread beneath him the winding sheet of relief; may it soften beneath his bones the cotton, the feathers, and the wool.
Lord, you yourself do not disdain to care for the just man who is ill; you yourself smooth his bed, you turn his mattress.
Happy is he...
Blessed be he who listens to the poor and the unfortunate; when evil days come, may the Almighty preserve him from them; may he keep him and grant him long days; may he make him happy on earth and save him from the ill-disposed; if he is infirm and suffering, may he make his couch soft for him, and may God turn his bed.
September 10.
...Pleasure in being seen from afar.
September 11, facing a hamlet.
He who dies at his plowing and he who dies in battle are little mourned. Their friends bury them and close the ranks. Busy filling the gaps, they have no leisure to think of the absent one.
September 12.
An age when the body has become subtle, the mind has become coarse.
One fills the former only with juices, hot waters, vapors, light things. One occupies the latter only with matter, animals, minerals, configurations, and weights. Thus bodies, receiving only nourishment that is too fine, and minds, concerning themselves only with objects that are too real and too hard, have become equally corrupted.
They have earthly minds with airy bodies.
The occupation of watching time flow.