These journals do not begin until a date
seven years after "Fanshawe" was published; but it is safe to assume
that they mirror pretty closely the general complexion of the
intervening years.
His mode of life during this period was fitted to nurture his
imagination, but must have put the endurance of his nerves to the
severest test. The statement that for several years "he never saw the
sun," is entirely an error; but it is true that he seldom chose to walk
in the town except at night, and it is said that he was extremely fond
of going to fires if they occurred after dark. In summer he was up
shortly after sunrise, and would go down to bathe in the sea. The
morning was chiefly given to study, the afternoon to writing, and in the
evening he would take long walks, exploring the coast from Gloucester to
Marblehead and Lynn,--a range of many miles. Or perhaps he would pace
the streets of the town, unseen but observing, gathering material for
something in the vein of his delicious "Night Sketches." "After a time,"
he writes, "the visions vanish, and will not appear again at my bidding.
Then, it being nightfall, a gloomy sense of unreality depresses my
spirits, and impels me to venture out before the clock shall strike
bedtime, to satisfy myself that the world is not made of such shadowy
materials as have busied me throughout the day. A dreamer may dwell so
long among fantasies, that the things without him will seem as unreal as
those within." Or, if he chose a later hour, he might go abroad to
people the deserted thoroughfares with wilder phantoms.
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