1 AUGUST – EUGENE’S BIRTHDAY

August 1, 1841. Nothing special today, except that I am ending my 59th year. Thus a person draws near to the end almost without being aware of it. We grow old only one day at a time; but then your anniversary comes to remind you that you are one year older. Each year the number increases and the result is astonishment…

Journal, le 1 aout 1841, EO XX

Then ten years later:

August 1, 1851. Today I begin my 70th year. How many and how great the graces since the day of my birth…

Journal, le 1 aout 1851, EO XXI

“God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.”     Voltaire