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Fontainebleau Friday Aug 7th 1874
The happy remembrances of one year ago this evening impell me to open my journal and endeavor to catch some of of the pleasant recollections which seem to glide so swiftly back into the twilight of the past alive only with its shadows of memories so crowded from our view by the all absorbing present. One year ago how brightly the moon shone down through the oak leaves at our country home and what happier children could be imagined than those who at this moment were wandering under the ancient branches awakening the evenings stillness by merry laugh and song little did we think during these pleasant moments how brightly in the future they would shine out in the past, the charm of the the hour would not brook the dull and serious thoughts of every day life and the moonlights spell enthralled hearts 

where existence was in the present and we did right to make that present as rich for the future as young natures could. Age tells us that youth is the brightest and happiest moments of this life, and when portions of this young existence shines out as brightly from the rest as did this silver star this evening which traversed so swiftly the [[strikethrough]] evening [[/strikethrough]] golden sky and sank behind the dark trees of the chateau garden. These hours must be indeed brilliant in the existence of a lifetime and giddy youth thinks not how quickly they are gone leaving only their shadows who are the memories of future years, then the reason moves  in its hidden cavern of the brain and man sees how little he realizes the flight of time in its monotone and how much passes not even leaving its specters which are the thoughts of a well spent life- then resolution seizes in its spasmodic grasp the mind and