Joseph Joubert (1754–1824). Joubert: A Selection from His Thoughts. 1899.
Chapter XII.Of Space, Time, Light, and Sound
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[2]Light is the shadow of God; all clearness is the shadow of light.
[3]The first morning light rejoices us more than the hours that follow. It has really an essential character of mirth, wherewith it colours all our moods, without any effort of our own.
[4]The fire, they say, makes company; that is because it makes thought. Physically, there is something peculiarly inspiring in the sight of fire. The attitude, the silence, the place, the kind of reverie into which we fall as we warm ourselves—all these combine to give the mind more steadiness and more activity. The hearth is a Pindus and the Muses are there.
[5]The sound of the drum drives out thought; for that very reason is it the most military of instruments.
[6]Without the song of the grasshopper as an accompaniment, the quiver of the sunlit air in great summer heat is like a dance without music.
[7]We should not gather anything that grows in graveyards, and even the grass should have a sacred uselessness.
[8]Places die like men, although they appear to last on.
[9]Monuments are the links which unite one generation with another. Preserve what your fathers have seen.
[10]Agriculture produces good sense, and good sense of an excellent kind.
[11]In gardening we enjoy the purer and more delicate delights of husbandry.
[12]I never like evergreen trees. There is something black in their green and cold in their shade, something dry, pointed and prickly in their leaves. As besides, they lose nothing and have nothing to fear, they seem to me without feeling, and therefore interest me little.
[13]Carnivorous animals care not only for their prey, but for the chase. It is their game, their pastime, their pleasure. All, in fact, hunt gaily—laughingly—so to speak.