(Diary, 1814.)
308.
“Portia--How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
(Marked in his copy of Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.”)
309.
“And on the day that one becomes a
slave,
The Thunderer, Jove, takes half his
worth away.”--Homer.
(“The Odyssey” [Bryant’s translation], Book XVII, 392-393. Marked by
Beethoven.)
310.
“Short is the life of man, and whoso
bears
A cruel heart, devising cruel things,
On him men call down evil from the
gods
While living, and pursue him, when he
dies,
With scoffs. But whoso is of generous
heart
And harbors generous aims, his guests
proclaim
His praises far and wide to all
mankind,
And numberless are they who call him
good.”--Homer.
(“The Odyssey” [Bryant’s translation], Book XIX, 408-415. Copied into
his diary, 1818.)