Sunday, February 28, 2010

Joy, temperance, and repose...

... slam the door on the doctor's nose."  So said Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who, James at Monkey Mind reminds us, celebrated a birthday yesterday.  Longfellow has long been a particular favorite of mine. So this morning, a belated happy birthday and wishes for a blessed sabbath for all.

2 comments:

Dan Harper said...

Do you have a citation for the Longfellow quote? A search of his works at Project Gutenberg does not turn up this quote, or anything remotely like it; was it in a letter, in ephmera, or what? I've seen other sources cited for this same couplet, including Friedrich von Logau (1604-1655), so I'm wondering if Longfellow actually did write this couplet.

slt said...

Hi Dan,
Thank you kindly for writing. The quote indeed comes from Longfellow's translation of various "Poetic Aphorisms" from the "Sinngedichte" by Friedrich von Logau.
Here is another one:
"CREEDS.
Lutheran, Popish, Calvinistic, all these creeds and doctrines three

Extant are; but still the doubt is, where Christianity may be"

Hope all goes well with you and
Blessings