Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1861-12-13
BETTER KEEP A DIARY.

We have long been of this opinion;
but we never saw the expcdiency ol
sws fitso well stated as by this writer in
the London Magazine" "If a man
keeps no diary, the path crumbles a.
way behind him as his feet leave it :
and days gone by are but little more
than a blank, broken by few distort-
ed Shadows. His life is all confined
within the limits of to-day. Who
does not know how imperfect a thing
IA memory is 1t not merely forgets :
it misleads:, Things III tiemiory do
hot fiiefely fade away preserving as
they fade their own lineaments so
long as they can be seen; they change
.ssissso their aspect, they change their place,
they turn to something quite different
haa -. from the fact. In the picture of the
-Iss 81 s., miiien nienol1 Dry 1aeeu pY any
10 perspective is entirely wrong. How
tapriciously some events seem quite
wsceeent, which the diary shows are
really far away, and how unaccount-
ably many things look far away,
.ua-.zv which, in truth, are not left many
weeks behind US. A man might al
most as well not have lived at all as
entirely fol get he has lived, and en-
III tirely forget what be did on those de-
parted days. But think thar almost
terest in looking back, day by day,
-saaa s. upon what he did and thought upon
80 that day twelve months, that day three
r. or five years. The trouble of writing
.te1 the diary is very small A few lines.
,-ss.a a few words, written at the time, suf.
fsLTa See, when ron look at them, to bring
- all (what the Yankees calD the SuT-
TOUndtltgS of that season before YOU.
Many little things come up again,
which you know quite well you never
Would have thought of again. but for
your glance at those words, and still
which you feel You would be sorry to
have forgotten. There must be a
richness about the life of person
Who keeps diary, unknown to other
inca. And million more little links |
and ties must bind him to the men
bers of his family circle, and to all |
among whom he lives Life, to him
looking back, is not a bare line, !
striuging together his personal idcn-
tity: 1t is surrounded, entertwined, |
cntangled with thousands and thous- !
.>Vj 0nds of slight incidents, which give it |
beauty, kindliness, reality. Some
q folks life slike an oak walking stick,
Tstraight and varHished; useful, out |
hardand bare. Other mems life land |
such may yours and mine, Kindly read, |
e. sss e7a or, ever be) is like that oak when it
= = So was not a stick, but a branch, and
waved lcafenvelopcd, and with lots
. aee5@iOf little twigs growing out of it, up. |
s on the summer tree And yet more
2eass precious than the power of the diary
3 ssas to call up again host of little cir
-- --1 gcumstances and facts, is its power to
'sla2e' bring back the indescribable but keen
laa stsal ly-felt atmosphere of those departed
,.sr days. The old time comes over YOU.
1t is not merely collection, an ag-
gregate of facts that comes back; it
ts-l Is something far more excellent than
that-it is the soul of days long ago
it is the dear 11,ld lapg-S5llle itself IL
e Tile perfume of hawthorn hedges is !
there; the breath of breezes that fan
ned our gray hair when it made sun
Fssshy curls often smootEcd down by
hands that are gone; the sunshine on
the grass where thcs cold fingers made
daisy chains; and snatchcs OF music
: =ssI q compared with which anything you
s..s z sss hear at the opera is extremely poor.
Therefore keep you diary, my
-. friend"