“ I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.” Theodore… (read more)
“In answer to the petition it was clearly voted…that the petitioners together with all such as dwell on the south side of the afores’d line who are willing to joyne with them, and do embody so as to maintain an able learned Orthodox minister amongst them, shall be freed from any charge to the minister… (read more)
“But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” Robert Frost from “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” This is another of the entries from my previous project, Walking the Post Road, which I have transferred over to this project for two reasons…. (read more)
This is another of the entries from my previous project, Walking the Post Road, which I have transferred over to this project for two reasons. The first reason is that it is relevant to this project in that it is a ‘ramble’ about Boston. The second reason is that the previous project was done on… (read more)
Section 1: Mount Auburn Cemetery to Belmont Street intersection. 0.3 miles. Things change. Borders change. Had I undertaken the walk described in the previous entry, along Brattle Street to Mount Auburn Cemetery, in 1753 instead of in 2018, I would have entered Watertown as soon as I crossed Sparks Street in what is now Cambridge,… (read more)
“…And above, in the light Of the star-lit night, Swift birds of passage wing their flight…” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from Birds of Passage, 1858. The old ‘Watertown Path’ of 1630 is today known as Brattle Street, as stated on the street sign in the photograph below. This ancient road is one of the earliest… (read more)
“Cambridge at any time is full of ghosts” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (1836) “What did you do in this world that cannot be killed? What did you leave behind that the wind can’t blow away? A thing of beauty is here forever. Nothing can kill the beautiful deed.” Brother Blue, eulogy for Igor Fokin at… (read more)
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” King James Bible, Matthew 5:14. “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our… (read more)
“One if by land, and two if by sea: And I on the opposite shore shall be.” The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. First published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1861 . “We returned from Cambridge by way of Charlestown. Crossing that ferry to Boston…” Dr. Alexander Hamilton, Entry Wednesday, August 15, 1744… (read more)
Most of my rambles around Boston have been in the ‘neighborhoods’, the areas added to the original town on the Shawmut peninsula over the course of the century after the creation of the United States of America. This is not in any way a rejection of ‘ye olde towne’; in fact, the profound historical complexity… (read more)
