thing
appertaining to the rear of a house, as compared with the front, which
is fitted up for the public eye. There is much to be learned always, by
getting a glimpse at rears. Where the direction of a road has been
altered, so as to pass the rear of farm-houses instead of the front, a
very noticeable aspect is presented.

* * * * *

A sketch:--the devouring of old country residences by the overgrown
monster of a city. For instance, Mr. Beekman's ancestral residence was
originally several miles from the city of New York; but the pavements
kept creeping nearer and nearer, till now the house is removed, and a
street runs directly through what was once its hall.

* * * * *

An essay on various kinds of death, together with the just before and
just after.

* * * * *

The majesty of death to be exemplified in a beggar, who, after being
seen, humble and cringing, in the streets of a city for many years, at
length, by some means or other, gets admittance into a rich man's
mansion, and there dies, assuming state and striking awe into the
breasts of those who had looked down on him.

* * * * *

To write a dream, which shall resemble the real course of a dream, with
all its inconsistency, its strange transformations, which are all taken
as a matter of course, its eccentricities and aimlessness, with
nevertheless a leading idea running through the whole. Up to this old
age of the world, no such thing ever has been written.

* * * * *

To allegorize life with a masquerade, and represent mankind generally as
masquers. Here and there a natural face may appear.

* * * * *

With an emblematical divining-rod, to seek for emblematic gold,--that
is, for truth,--for what of Heaven is left on earth.

* * * * *

A task for a subjugated fiend:--to gather up all the fallen autumnal
leaves of a forest, assort them, and affix each one to the twig where it
originally grew.

* * * * *

A vision of Grub Street, forming an allegory of the literary world.

* * * * *

The emerging from their lurking-places of evil characters on some
occasion suited to their action, they having been quite unknown to the
world hitherto. For instance, the French Revolution b