Drifting thoughts

Wednesday, November 6th., Les Sablons.

I am very well fixed here. The old couple are so decent, such brave gens; they exhale such an atmosphere of life's effort nearly accomplished. They may be narrow, but they have worked honestly and lived sanely. They like being praised as all right minded people do. And they are so simple. Imagine taking to a garden after 31 years railway work in Paris. Makes me realise that I have little or no idea about elderly people, their motivations, desires and attitudes. This is a sad omission for a writer and I must do something about it. Heretofore, I have thought (when I have thought at all) of older people as being essentially no different except slower in mind and action; I now think there is a difference in kind. This is something I may need to pick up if, for example, I were to write a book, or series of books, which covered a long period of years, which I may well do.

Autumn, Fontainebleau Forest - Maxime Maufra

I walked into the forest again this morning. There was a foggy mist everywhere, a proper autumnal day, and on all sides could be heard the dropping of water from the drenched trees. And looking into the depths of the forest one could conjure up the magic of "As You Like It" and "Midsummer Night's Dream". I felt quite surprisingly poetic, almost sentimental. Just think that by taking the same walk every day one would, if properly attentive, see the subtle changes as the seasons flowed by. Surely that is a more important thing to be part of than chasing fame and fortune?

At intervals cavalry trotted past towards Fontainebleau. One officer read a newspaper as he trotted along. Clearly the horse knew where he was going. For the second time in eight days the Government was in danger of falling yesterday. "So what", I thought! 

I was thinking this morning that the United States Republic has substituted an aristocracy of commercial cleverness for the old forms of aristocracy. It is said that every man (every white man that is) has an equal chance in the U.S. and he has. But commercial aptitude, with as little honesty as can be gotten away with, is the only thing that will be of use to him. And everything is arranged so that the 'risen' can trample on those who have not risen.