Part 1
DESULTORY THOUGHTS
AND
REFLECTIONS.
Vivere cogitare est.
Life is measured but by thoughts and affections. They are the sun that shadows the dial.
NEW-YORK: Printed by J. P. WRIGHT, 18 New Street.
DESULTORY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS.
BY
THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.
NEW-YORK:
PUBLISHED BY WILEY AND PUTNAM,
No. 161 Broadway.
1839.
DESULTORY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS.
KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE.
A profound knowledge of life is the least enviable of all species of knowledge, because it can only be acquired by trials that make us regret the loss of our ignorance.
BEING UNDERSTOOD.
When we find that we are not liked, we assert that we are not understood; when probably the dislike we have excited proceeds from our being too fully comprehended.
SACRIFICES.
Some persons are capable of making great sacrifices, but few are capable of concealing how much the effort has cost them; and it is this concealment that constitutes their value.
MUSIC.
Music often awakens long sleeping echoes in the soul; and, though never heard before, seems familiar to the ear, as some voice, loved in childhood, remembered in a dream.
MINDS.
Some minds may be said to resemble musical instruments: they possess powers, and if judiciously touched, give forth sweet sounds.
LOVERS.
Ninon de L’Enclos observes, that “if a man gives a woman wealth, it is only a proof of his generosity; but that if he gives her his time, it is a proof of his love.” This, however, cannot be considered as a conclusive proof, for, in giving their time, many men bestow that which is of no value to themselves or others.
LOVE AND ENTHUSIASM.
Love and enthusiasm are always ridiculous, when not reciprocated by their objects.
PATH OF LIFE.
Spontaneously, we render the path of life a weary one, and plant all the thorns that obstruct it: while the few stray flowers that cheer us, arise in some extraneous and contingent agency.
MINDS.
The minds of the young resemble new wine in a state of fermentation and effervescence; but the minds of the mature resemble old wine, which has lost its fiery particles, and retains only its strength and raciness.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD.
The knowledge of the world that enables us to escape from errors, can only be acquired by an experience which costs us many of our most cherished illusions.
CHARACTER OF MAN.
As storm following storm, and wave succeeding wave, give additional hardness to the shell that encloses the pearl, so do the storms and waves of life add force to the character of man.
PRECOCIOUS WISDOM.
Precocious wisdom is not desirable for youth, lest, like the rash blossom which ventures forth too early, it should be nipped ere it has strength to resist adversity.
STRENGTH OF MIND.
By relying on our own resources, we acquire mental strength; but, when we lean on others for support, we are like an invalid, who, having accustomed himself to a crutch, finds it difficult to walk without one.
CONTEMPLATION.
Contemplation displays to us the past events of our lives, which, during their occurrence, we saw not; as a calm clear day shows us the rocks and wrecks of the sea, which we discovered not while tossed on the turbulent surface of the waters.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.
Philosophy was a boon bestowed by Reason to console mankind for the inevitable misfortunes of life, but being found insufficient for the task, she granted the blessing of Religion, a younger, a more gentle, and infallible consoler.
POLITENESS.
A substitute for goodness of heart.
CONSCIENCE.
A starving man, who committed theft, was asked by a pious person if his conscience had not cried out to him to forbear. “Alas!” replied he, “if it did, the cries of my stomach were so much louder, that they prevented me from hearing those of conscience.”
PRESENTIMENTS.
Presentiments are the heart’s prophecies; for the heart is a sibyl deeply skilled in all the mysteries of her own realm.
YOUTH AND AGE.
Youth resembles a Claude Lorraine glass, which imparts to all objects its own beautiful tints; but age is like a magnifying lens, which leaves no defect unseen.
CONFIDENCES.
Confidences are more frequently reposed in persons through a want of discretion, than from excess of friendship, and are oftener betrayed through incontinency of speech than from motives of treachery.
COMMON MISTAKES.
The common herd of mankind mistake anarchy for liberty, ostentation for generosity, passion for love, and vanity for pride; yet how widely different are they all!
JUDGMENT OF WOMEN ON MEN.
Women are prone to judge their lovers’ hearts But by their own, which little semblance hath With man’s rough nature. Hence they love them for The qualities they give them—not for those They have, which rarely merit to be loved.
LOVE.
Love in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera seria; and in Germany a melodrame.
GRATITUDE.
Gratitude was fancifully said to be the memory of the heart; but, alas! for poor human nature, hearts are more than suspected to have wondrous short memories.
MEN AND WOMEN.
A woman’s head is always influenced by her heart; but a man’s heart is generally influenced by his head.
LIFE.
Life would be as insupportable without the prospect of death, as it would be without sleep.
MATURITY.
It is in maturity, when the passions are calmed, and Reason exerts her influence, that the attachments we form possess the most stability. We expect less, and pardon more. The disappointments we have experienced teach us to value what we have attained, even while regretting what we have lost.
THE POETRY OF LIFE.
The poetry of our lives is, like our religion, kept apart from our every-day thoughts; neither influence us as they ought. We should be wiser and happier, if, instead of secluding them in some secret shrine in our hearts, we suffered their humanising qualities to temper our habitual words and actions.
HONOUR AND CHASTITY.
Honour is the peculiar and essential virtue of men, and chastity that of women; both are lost, if these qualities are impeached.
SOCIETY.
Society punishes not the vices of its members, but their detection; like the Spartans, who punished the discovery of theft, and not the crime.
IDEAS.
A man with a vast number of ideas, without strong power of reasoning, resembles a general incapable of directing his troops.
SELFISH MEN.
The selfish man believes that by closing his heart against his fellows, and centering in self every thought and feeling, he escapes much suffering. But his egotistical calculations are invariably defeated; for his contracted sympathies being all directed to one focus, he so aggravates the ills he endures, that he expends on self alone more painful pity than the most enthusiastic philanthropist devotes to mankind.
ILLUSIONS.
Each illusion that dies gives birth to a posthumous one, which we believe to be less perishable than its predecessor, until we see it similarly fade and expire.
HAPPINESS.
Happiness, like youth and health, is rarely appreciated until it is past.
SOLITUDE.
In solitude we retain our own faults; but in society we superadd those of others.
SEVERITY TO OTHERS.
Some people seem to consider the severity of their censures on the errors of others as an atonement for their own.
YOUTH.
When youth has fled the furrowed brow, And we no more can trace it now Beaming in every outward part; Where is its refuge?—in the heart; Yes, there it dwells more glowing—warm, Than when it lent exterior charm, Keeping alive affection’s fire, Though it no more can love inspire.
HAPPINESS.
Happiness consists, not in having much, but in being content with little.
HATRED.
We injure ourselves more than our enemies, by indulging hatred towards them.
MEMORY.
From out the grave of every friend we loved Springs up a flower (as fabulists relate Arose from the red stream of Ajax’ wound,) Memory ’tis named, and watered by our tears, It lives and grows, until its fibres strike Into the heart, nor leave it until death.
AMUSING MEN.
We never respect those who amuse us, however we may smile at their comic powers. A considerable distinction exists between the amusing and the entertaining man: we laugh with one, but reflect with the other.
TRUTH.
Monarchs seldom hear truth until too late to derive profit from its knowledge.
COURAGE.
Courage defends the honour of man,—modesty guards that of woman.
BORES.
People who talk of themselves, when you are thinking only of yourself.
SYMPATHY.
Each thought of mine an echo found in his: Our minds were like two mirrors placed on walls Fronting each other, and reflecting back The self-same objects,—such is sympathy.
PLEASURE.
Pleasure is like a cordial—a little of it is not injurious, but too much destroys.
FRIENDS.
Friends are the thermometers by which we may judge the temperature of our fortunes.
IDEA.
Ideas are the seeds of thought, but they do not produce flowers unless the soil where they are sown is fertile.
ARISTOCRACY.
The aristocracy are prone to ridicule the elevation of men of the middle class to high official situations, not reflecting that it is easier to transmute men of talents into gentlemen than it is to convert mere gentlemen into men of talents.
WANT OF THOUGHT.
“J’écrirais assez bien si je savais penser,” was the confession of a French writer; one which might with truth be repeated by the greater part of modern authors, in whose works we find a superfluity of words, and a paucity of ideas. It is as though they wrote to avoid thought, instead of revealing and engendering it. Their works resemble certain trees, on which is found an abundance of leaves, but little fruit.
WISDOM.
Wisdom is e’er the harbinger of death. It comes not till it long has been invoked, To wean us gently from the world’s vain joys And show the yawning grave that waits for us.
ADMIRATION.
Those who are formed to win general admiration, are seldom calculated to bestow individual happiness.
VIRTUE.
Virtue, like a dowerless beauty, has more admirers than followers.
FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness of injuries is apt to draw on the forgiver a repetition of wrongs, as people reason thus: “If he has forgiven so much, he can forgive more.”
TRIALS.
The spirit in which we receive trials either increases or diminishes their bitterness: fortitude and resignation disarm them of their sharpest darts; while anger and vindictiveness only augment their poignancy.
PRINCIPLES.
A man without principles is like a ship without a compass.
TRUTH.
Mendaciloquens respects truth so much, that he seldom approaches it. Nay, you are wrong, for he is known to take great liberties with it.
AN UNPOPULAR MAN.
An unpopular man is he who forms few friendships in life; but, _en revanche_, cultivates many enmities.
TIME.
Time, fell destroyer of all earthly good, Sworn foe to beauty, innocence, and joy, Thou leav’st us nought but dull and sad experience, Whichever comes when we no longer need it, And keeps aloof when we require its aid.
KNOWLEDGE.
Knowledge should be acquired gradually, and by study; for the superficial knowledge which is the result of the promiscuous and unregulated adoption of the discoveries of others, affects the mind, as the sudden removal of a person with weak eyes from a darkened room into a blaze of light, does the sight,—it overpowers and confuses.
LOVE.
Love cannot exist in the heart of woman unless modesty is its companion, nor in that of man unless honour is its associate.
VICES.
The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for errors; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes.
VIRTUE.
Virtue should virtuous seem, nor wear a mask Of levity, as giddy maids put on At carnivals, showing unchaste exterior, Though innocence doth still reside within.
INGRATITUDE.
So inherent is ingratitude in man, that it is chiefly in affliction that he lifts his soul to his Creator; in joy and prosperity, he is prone to forget _Him_.
BALM FOR MISFORTUNES.
To sleep by night and dream by day is the balm of misfortune.
SOCIETY.
Those can most easily dispense with society who are the most calculated to adorn it; they only are dependent on it who possess no mental resources; for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like beggars, they are too poor to stay at home.
COURAGE.
Many people mistake audacity for courage, yet they are dissimilar. Catiline was audacious, and Cæsar courageous.
SUPERSTITION.
As darkness encourages the growth of reptiles, so, in an inverse manner, do the creatures of superstition promote the growth of darkness.
SELF-EXAMINATION.
Let us call back our long departed years, And ask if we employed them as we ought. Will they not tell a most reproachful tale, Of wasted hours, of blessings never prized Till lost, and then ungratefully resigned, With murmurs, and not thanks, that they were lent.
SOCIETY.
Those who suffer their happiness to depend on the futile pleasures of society, instead of the resources of their own minds, resemble birds, who, with the power of soaring into the pure regions of the sky, descend, and loiter amid the dust of the earth, at the risk of being snared or destroyed by every vagrant urchin.
IMAGINATION.
The heart is often made answerable for the follies of the imagination.
FLOWERS.
Some flowers absorb the rays of the sun so strongly, that in the evening they yield slight phosphoric flashes. May we not compare the minds of poets to these flowers, which, imbibing light, emit it again in a different form and aspect?
SORROW.
Sorrow and time can teach what nought else teaches, More than philosopher or priest e’er preaches.
TRUTH AND PHYSIC.
Truth and physic, two unpalatable things, never well received, though administered with a good intention.
CUNNING AND VANITY.
Cunning is a substitute for wisdom, adopted by the weak of intellect, as vanity is for pride.
PRECOCIOUS WISDOM.
Precocious wisdom is almost as much to be deprecated for youth as the premature maladies of age. Neither should arrive before the proper season, as their presence indicates constitutional debility.
SCEPTICS.
Sceptics, like dolphins, change when dying.
SCANDAL.
Scandal is the offspring of envy and malice—nursed by society, and cultivated by disappointment.
THE SELFISH MAN.
The selfish man may be compared to those antediluvian forests in the wilds of America which are nourished by their own dead leaves; in like manner does he feed on those feelings which ought to be devoted to the promotion of the general good.
FEMALE EDUCATION.
The whole system of female education tends more to instruct women to allure, than to repel; yet how infinitely more essential is the latter art! As rationally might the military disciplinarian limit his tuition to the mode of assault, leaving his soldiery in entire ignorance of the tactics of defence.
SUPERSTITION.
Superstition is but the fear of belief: religion is the confidence.
SOCIETY AND SOLITUDE.
In society we learn to know others, but in solitude we acquire a knowledge of self.
HAPPINESS.
We are so little formed for happiness, that, if the present offers nothing to mar it, we look back to the past, or forward to the future, for some subject of chagrin.
AUTHORS.
An author should be judged of by his works, rather than by his conversation; for the latter takes its colour from those with whom he converses; whereas his writings, being the fruit of solitude, bear the tint only of his own mind.
AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.
There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world.
ICONOCLAST.
Darus was a matter-of-fact man,—a moral iconoclast, who waged war against every image the fancy presented.
PATIENCE.
Patience is a plant of slow growth, but it bears precious fruit, and is the only palliation in affliction.
ENVY.
It is easier to pardon the faults than the virtues of our friends; because the first excite in us a self-complacency always agreeable; and the second, a sense of humiliation, which makes us dislike the inflictor.
VICE AND VIRTUE.
Vice is sometimes more courageous than virtue, because it has less to lose.
FORGIVENESS OF ENEMIES.
We more frequently pardon injuries from forgetfulness of them than from generosity; and many enemies are reconciled more through weakness of memory than goodness of heart.
FAITH.
It is when we most suffer that we most believe the existence of _that Power_ which can wound or heal.
INFIRMITIES OF GENIUS.
The infirmities of genius are often mistaken for its privileges.
INDULGENCE TOWARDS OTHERS.
If we examined our own faults attentively, we should have less time to detect, and more inclination to pardon, those of others.
AFFECTIONS.
The affections of some hearts resemble the sacred Indian tree, whose pendant branches make themselves a root and a tie to the earth.
APPETITE.
The rich suffer from want of appetite, the poor from excess.
PARDON.
Great injuries pardoned preclude the enjoyment of happiness between the pardoner and pardoned; for the one is vested with a superiority that wounds the self-love of the other, who, though he may admire the generosity of him who forgives, can love him no more.
SOCIETY.
People use in society a set of commonplace subjects and thoughts, which they exchange, as they expend the small coin with which they have provided their purses for the day; reserving deep feeling, and elevated sentiments, for home consumption, as they reserve their wealth for themselves, rather than for their friends.
FAME.
High fame’s a target, at which all let fly The darts of envy. Who can miss a mark That seems but rear’d to tempt a practised hand, Off’ring the aim that most allures mankind?
FORTITUDE AND RESIGNATION.
Fortitude enables us to encounter trials, and resignation to bear them. The brave man possesses fortitude, but the Christian only has resignation.
FAULTS.
We are more prone to murmur at the punishment of our faults than to lament them.
FORGIVENESS.
Forgiveness is a salve for the wounds inflicted by unkindness; while rancour but serves to keep them unhealed.
POLISHED MEN.
The society of polished men, like smooth, even roads, renders the journey of life more easy and agreeable, but that of unpolished men, like rough roads, makes all its ruts and inequalities painfully felt.
RESIGNATION.
Resignation is sometimes mistaken for happiness, though never found until its death.
ANGER.
Anger banishes reflection, but its consequences recall it.
SOCIETY.
“Be prosperous and happy, never require our services, and we will remain your friends.” This is not what society says, but it is the principle on which it acts.
LIFE.
Life is to the unhappy as a prison, from whose gloom they cannot escape: while to the happy, it resembles a vast palace filled with all that can delight. The prison may be rendered endurable by resignation; but the palace loses some of its bright colouring and gilding every day, until nought but faded remnants of its pristine beauty remain.
FUTURITY.
One of the best gifts of Providence is the veil that conceals futurity.
DUST.
No dust affects the eyes so much as gold dust.
FALSE WIT.
False wit, like false money, only passes current with those who have no means of comparison.
POLITICS.
Such is the tergiversation in politics at present, that politicians should say with regard to them, what Voltaire said of systems: “Il faut toujours se reserver le droit de rire le lendemain de ses idées de la veille.”
FAME.
Fame is like truth—still questioned and denied, The more ’tis obvious, yet survives its foes.
LOVE AND JEALOUSY.
Love often re-illumes his extinguished flame in the torch of jealousy.
LUXURIES.
Our luxuries and pleasures are the chains that civilization throws around us to attach us to earth. The coarse-minded submit to wear them, forgetting that man was formed for nobler ends, but the elevated and refined cast them off, and aspire to a purer existence.
LOVE.
Humboldt notices that the streams in America run languidly in the night, and await the rising of the sun to quicken their flight. Love is to the heart what the sun is to the American streams—it moves languidly in its absence.
SHORT MEMORIES.
There are no memories so short as those of the parvenu, and the ungrateful man; the first forgets himself, and the second his friends.
DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY.
Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.
DEMORALISATION.
One of the most marked characteristics of our day is a reckless neglect of principles, and a rigid adherence to their semblance.
SOCIETY.
Society rarely pardons those who have discovered the emptiness of its pleasures, and who can live independent of it and them.
ASSOCIATES.
We herd with the gay in our days of happiness, but turn to the sympathising when misfortune overtakes us: as we seek the festive hall in our hours of mirth, and fly to the solitude of our chamber in those of sorrow.
RESPECT.
We are never so jealous of the respect of others as when we have forfeited our own.
SATIRE.
Satire often proceeds less from ill-nature than from the desire of displaying wit.
STYLE.
To praise the style of an author more than his thoughts, is like commending a woman for her dress more than for her person. Style, like dress, should be appropriate, and not detract attention from what it was meant to adorn.
DECLAIMERS AGAINST THE WORLD.
They declaim most against the world who have most sinned against it; as people generally abuse those whom they have injured.
ROUGH MEN.
Rough men have all their seams on the outside; and they rub against and incommode those who come in contact with them.
FAITH.
We are more prone to persecute others for their faith than to make sacrifices to prove our own.
REASON.
Reason dissipates the illusions of life, but does not console us for their departure.
SORROW.
Sorrow is to youth what experience is to maturity.
REVOLUTIONS.
Revolutions are like earthquakes: if they overturn much that is faulty, they destroy also much that is good.
DESTINY.
Destiny is a phantom of our own creation, like the monsters children first imagine, and then fear.
PHILOSOPHY.
Socrates termed philosophy the preparation for death; but should it not rather be styled the patient endurance of life?
BON MOTS.
It was said of ——, that his conversation was a tissue of bon mots: “Yes,” said ——, “but remember, it has nothing but bon mots, and though a few spangles may ornament a dress, a garment wholly covered with them is fatiguing to the eye.”
VIRTUE.
The virtue that repels by its severity, makes few converts; but that which attracts by its charity, incites all to esteem, if not to follow its precepts.
KINGS AND BEAUTIES.
Kings never hear the voice of truth until they are dethroned; nor beauties, until they have abdicated their charms.
FLOWERS.
Flowers are the bright remembrancers of youth: They waft back with their bland and odorous breath The joyous hours that only young life knows, Ere we have learned that this fair earth hides graves. They bring the cheek that’s mouldering in the dust Again before us, tinged with health’s own rose; They bring the voices we shall hear no more, Whose tones were sweetest music to our ears; They bring the hopes that faded one by one, Till nought was left to light our path but faith, That we too, like the flowers, should spring to life, But not, like them again, e’er fade or die.
AGE.
It is strange that when youth gives us the prospect of a long life, we seldom think of rationally providing for its enjoyment; but when the term of it has been abridged by the flight of its best years, we become anxious to secure the comforts of the brief portion that remains to us.
POETS.
Poets, it has been said, form the aristocracy of intelligence; they are also the chemists of sentiment, who analyse and purify it.
PASSION.