To lie in ease yet dull anxiety for hours, afraid to think a thought, lest some thought of Anguish should shoot a pain athwart my body, afraid even to turn my body, lest the very bodily motion should introduce a train of painful Thoughts —
А вот неожиданное - ранний призыв к использованию гендерно-нейтрального местоимения. Очень ранний, это 1808-й год, на минуточку:
Whether we may not, nay, ought not, to use a neutral pronoun
relative, or representative, to the word ‘Person’, when it hath been used in the sense of homo, ανθρωποσ, mensch, or noun of the common gender, in order to avoid particularizing man or woman, or in order to express either Sex indifferently? If this be incorrect in syntax, the whole use of the word Person is lost in a number of instances, or only retained by some stiff and strange position of words – as ‘not letting the person be aware, wherein offence has been given’ – instead of – ‘wherein he or she has offended.’ – In my [opinion] both the specific intention and general etymon of ‘Person’, in such sentences, fully authorize the use of It, & which, instead of He, She, him, her, who, whom
И еще хорошее - внезапно обращение к невидимому и неведомому читателю, что-то вроде дисклеймера:
If I should die without having destroyed this & my other"cogitabilia rather than actual cogitata a me" - т.е. мысли, которые можно помыслить, а не именно мои мысли.
Memorandum Books, I trust, that these Hints & first Thoughts, often
too cogitabilia rather than actual cogitata a me, may not be understood as my fixed opinions – but merely as the Suggestions of the disquisition; & acts of obedience to the apostolic command of Try all things: hold fast
that which is good.
Эти три цитаты из периода 1807-1810.
Третья мне напомнила любимое стихотворение Киплинга.