NOTEBOOK

been rejected twice already. It would take a plucky man
to carry his own picture up those stairs. Sometimes a fine
picture is applauded.

Take a ride on the steam roller to the Bois de Boulogne
from Place de la Concorde to avoid carriages.

Religion consists in a set of things which the average
man thinks he believes, and wishes he was certain.

Paris May 7

I wish this eternal winter would come to an end. Snow-
flakes fell today, and also about a week ago. Have had
rain almost without intermission for two months and one
week. Have had a fire every day since September 10 and
have now just lighted one.

Salon

Criticism is a queer thing. If I print "she was stark
naked" and then proceed to describe her person in detail,
what critic would not howl? Who would venture to leave
the book on a parlor table? But the artist does this, and
all ages gather around and look and talk and admire.

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals—
apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

For 1000 years the savage nation (France) indulged
itself in massacres—every now and then a big massacre,
or a little one. The massacreing spirit is peculiar to France,
I mean in Christendom. No other state had it. In this,
France has always walked abreast, kept her end up with
her brethren, the Turks and Burmese.

Afternoon of the I2th of July went to Antwerp. Thir-

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