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DIARY

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 168 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DIARY , the See also:

Lat. diarium (from See also:dies, a See also:day), the See also:book in which are preserved the daily memoranda regarding events and actions which come under the writer's See also:personal observation, or are related to him by others. The See also:person who keeps this See also:record is called a diarist. It is not necessary that the entries in a diary should be made each day, since every See also:life, however full, must contain absolutely empty intervals. But it is essential that the entry should be made during the course of the day to which it refers. When this has evidently not been done, as in the See also:case of See also:Evelyn's diary, there is nevertheless an effort made to give the memoranda the effect of being so recorded, and in point of fact, even in a case like that of Evelyn, it is probable that what we now read is an enlargement of brief notes jotted down on the day cited. When this is not approximately the case, the diary is a See also:fraud, for its whole value depends on its instantaneous transcript of impressions. In its See also:primitive See also:form, the diary must always have existed; as soon as See also:writing was invented, men and See also:women must have wished to See also:note down, in some See also:almanac or See also:journal, memoranda respecting their business, their engagements or their adventures. But the See also:literary value of these would be extremely insignificant until the spirit of See also:individualism had crept in, and human beings began to be interesting to other human beings for their own See also:sake. It is not, therefore, until the See also:close of the See also:Renaissance that we find diaries beginning to have literary value, although, as the study of See also:sociology extends, every scrap of genuine and unaffected record of See also:early See also:history possesses an ethical See also:interest. In the' 7th See also:century, diaries began to be largly written in See also:England, although in most cases without any See also:idea of even eventual publication. See also:Sir See also:William See also:Dugdale (1605—'686) had certainly no expectation that his slight diary would ever see the See also:light. There is no surviving record of a journal kept by See also:Clarendon, See also:Richard See also:Baxter, See also:Lucy See also:Hutchinson and other autobiographical writers of the See also:middle of the century, but we may take it for granted that they possessed some such record, kept from day to day.

See also:

Bulstrode See also:Whitelocke (1605—1675), whose Memorials of the See also:English Affairs covers the ground from 1625 to 166o, was a genuine diarist. So was the See also:elder See also:George See also:Fox (1624—1690), who kept not merely " a See also:great journal," but " the little journal books," and whose See also:work was published in 1694. The famous diary of See also:John Evelyn (1620—1706) professes to be the record of seventy years, and, although large tracts of it are covered in a very perfunctory manner, while in others many of the entries have the See also:air of having been written in See also:long after the event, this is a very interesting and amusing work; it was not published until 1818. In spite of all its imperfections there is a great See also:charm about the diary of Evelyn, and it would hold a still higher position in the history of literature than it does if it were not overshadowed by what is unquestionably the most illustrious of the diaries of the See also:world, that of See also:Samuel See also:Pepys (1633—1703). This was begun on the 1st of See also:January 166o and was carried on until the 29th of May '669. The extraordinary value of Pepys' diary consists in its fidelity to the See also:portraiture of its author's See also:character. He feigns nothing, conceals nothing, sets nothing down in malice or insincerity. He wrote in a form of shorthand intelligible to no one but himself, and not a phrase betrays the smallest expectation that any See also:eye but his own would ever investigate the pages of his See also:confession. The importance of this wonderful document, in fact, See also:lay unsuspected until 18'9, when the Rev. John See also:Smith of Baldock began to decipher the MS. in Magdalene See also:College, See also:Cambridge. It was not until 1825 that See also:Lord Braybrooke published See also:part of what was only fully edited, under the care of Mr See also:Wheatley, in 1893—1896. In the See also:age which succeeded that of Pepys, a diary of extraordinary emotional interest was kept by See also:Swift from 1710 to 1713, and was sent to See also:Ireland in the form of a " Journal to Stella "; it is a surprising See also:amalgam of ambition, See also:affection, wit and freakishness.

John See also:

Byrom (1692—1763), the See also:Manchester poet, kept a journal, which was published in 1854. The diary of the celebrated dissenting divine, See also:Philip See also:Doddridge (1702-1751), was printed in '829. Of far greater interest are the admirably composed and vigorously written See also:journals of John See also:Wesley (1703—1791). But the most celebrated work of this See also:kind produced in the latter See also:half of the '8thcentury was the diary of Fanny See also:Burney (Madame D'Arblay), published in '842—'846. It will be perceived that, without exception, these See also:works were posthumously published, and the whole conception of the diary has been that it should be written for the writer alone, or, if for the public, for the public when all See also:prejudice shall have passed away and all See also:passion cooled down. Thus, and thus only, can the diary be written so as to impress upon its eventual readers a sense of its author's perfect sincerity and courage. Many of the diaries described above were first published in the opening years of the '9th century, and it is unquestionable that the interest which they awakened in the public led to their See also:imitation. Diaries ceased to be rare, but as a See also:rule the specimens which have hitherto appeared have not presented much literary interest. Exception must be made in favour of the journals of two See also:minor politicians, See also:Charles Greville 0794—'865) and See also:Thomas See also:Creevey (1768—'838), whose indiscretions have added much to the gaiety of nations; the papers of the former appeared in 1874—'887, those of the latter in 1903. The diary of See also:Henry Crabb See also:Robinson (1775—'867), printed in '869, contains excellent See also:biographical material. Tom See also:Moore's journal, published in 1856 by Lord John See also:Russell, disappointed its readers. But it is probable, if we See also:reason by the See also:analogy of the past, that the most curious and See also:original diaries of the 19th century are still unknown to us, and See also:lie jealously guarded under See also:lock and See also:key by the descendants of those who compiled them.

It was natural that the form of the diary should See also:

appeal to a See also:people so sensitive to social peculiarities and so keen in the observation of them as the See also:French. A See also:medieval document of immense value is the diary kept by an See also:anonymous cure during the reigns of Charles VI. and Charles VII. This Journal d'un See also:bourgeois de See also:Paris was kept from 1409 to 1431, and was continued by another See also:hand down to 1449. The See also:marquis de Dangeau (1638—1720) kept a diary from '684 till the See also:year of his See also:death; this although dull, and as See also:Saint-See also:Simon said " of an insipidity to make you sick," is an inexhaustible storehouse of facts about the reign of See also:Louis XIV. Saint-Simon's own brilliant See also:memoirs, written from '69' to '723, may be considered as a sort of diary. The lawyer, Edmond See also:Barbier 0689—'77 I), wrote a journal of the anecdotes and little facts which came to his knowledge from 1718 to 1762. The studious care which he took to be correct, and his See also:manifest candour, give a singular value to Barbier's record; his diary was not printed at all until 1847, nor, in its entirety, until '8J7. The See also:song-writer, Charles Colle (1709—1783), kept a journal historique from '758 to '782; it is full of vivacity, but very scandalous and spiteful. It saw the light in '8o5, and surprised those to whom Colle, in his lifetime, had seemed the most placid and See also:good-natured of men. See also:Petit de See also:Bachaumont (1690—1770) had See also:access to remarkable See also:sources of See also:information, and his Memoires secrets (a diary the publication of which began in 1762 and was continued after Bachaumont's death, until 1787, by other persons) contains a valuable See also:mass of documents. The marquis d'See also:Argenson (1694—1757). kept a diary, of which a comparatively full textwas first published in' 859. In See also:recent times the See also:posthumous publication of the diaries of the See also:Russian artist, See also:Marie See also:Bashkirtseff (186o—1884), produced a great sensation in '887, and revealed a most remarkable temperament.

The See also:

brothers Jules and Edmond de See also:Goncourt kept a very See also:minute diary of all that occurred around them in See also:artistic and literary Paris; after the death of Jules, in 1870, this was continued by Edmond, who published the three first volumes in' 888. The publication of this work was continued, and it produced no little See also:scandal. It is excessively See also:ill-natured in parts, but of its vivid picturesqueness, and of its See also:general accuracy as a transcript of conversation, there can be no two opinions. (E.

End of Article: DIARY

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