Through the dark and lurid atmosphere of war the light of "Nature's own exceeding peace" still softly falls on the earth. The ...

I had set myself to reading Maury's "Physical Geography of the Sea," after a long deferring; but now that he has come out as a...

A glimpse into a heart which has always been closed, both to God and man, — what a chaos it discloses! Yet with all the elements of order th...

Esther dead! Gone home two days before I heard or dreamed of it! But since she has gone home, — since it is only a glorious release for her,...

They write to me of her funeral, of the white flowers beside her head, and of her own lilies of the valley strewn over her in the grave by o...

This is the gala week of spring. None of the early flowers have quite faded, and the apple trees are in full bloom, while elms and maples ar...

I have been free for a few days, and have taken a journey, a flying tour among some of my friends. How it quieted me, to be with my peace-lo...

Still the same old weariness of study; "weariness of the flesh." Books are treasures, but one may work among treasures even, diggi...

Weary, weary, too weary to listen patiently to the heavy Sabbath bells; far too weary to sit in the church and listen to loud words and loud...

Crackers all around the house at night. Fire-crackers, torpedoes, pistols, and bell-ringing, are enough to make one sick of one's countr...

I have run over the birth-histories of the nations of Europe, in their chaotic rise from barbarism; and have just completed a bird's-eye...

The bluebirds have come! and the meadow-lark has sung over in the fields behind the garden, these two or three mornings. I have dreamed of s...

What does cause depression of spirits? Heavy head and heavy heart, and no sufficient reason for either, that I know of. I am out of doors ev...

Eternal life and eternal death; what do these words mean? This is the question that comes up again and again. It has recently been brought u...

I cannot let this birthday pass without a memorial of its sun's rising and setting on flower-gifts from these my girl-friends: a wreath ...

This day broke upon our country in gloom; for the sounds of war came up to us from the South,—war between brethren; civil war; well may ...

The conflict is deepening; but thanks to God, there is no wavering, no division, now, at the North! All are united, as one man; and from a p...

I have actually forgotten to write for months in this book. I fear me, "my heart is nae here." I have lived a good deal in the pas...

Since I came to Beverly I have been looking over "Wilhelm Meister" for the first time. I am disappointed in it, and have little re...

God be thanked for the thinkers of good and noble thoughts! It wakes up all the best in ourselves, to come into close contact with others gr...