John mason Neale's Diary entry for March 4 and 5 1839 reads as follows
I never miss a whole day without thinking what a very stirring sermon one thereby preaches to oneself on the insignificance of one's own history. We pass over unnoticed those poor twenty-four hours, and yet they had their little joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, and contained in themselves a little epitome of life. And just so it will pass; granting that our warmest wishes are fulfilled, we know well enough that when some journaliser, taken up with his own cares and joys, shall have entered an account of March 5th 1939, there will long have been erected - I hope in soem quiet village - a tablet " To the memory of the Rev. J M Neale - years rector of this parish, and of Mary, his wife' and so on. You will say I am seized with a fit of melancholy. Oh no, and these thoughts do not make me so ; but they do make me long, and sometimes more ardently than I can express, that before that time comes I may have done something which may exempt that tablet from carelessly being passed by ...
No comments:
Post a Comment