It is now who can attract the most attention by making a figure for a few hours, or by exciting curiosity or envy; to-morrow they will all return, dull and exhausted, to the employments and troubles of yesterday.
Alas! thought I with vexation, each of us is like these masqueraders; our whole life is often but an unsightly Carnival! And yet man has need of holidays, to relax his mind, rest his body, and open his heart.

Can he not have them, then, with these coarse pleasures?
Economists have been long inquiring what is the best disposal of the industry of the human race.

Ah! if I could only discover the best disposal of its leisure! It is easy enough to find it work; but who will find it relaxation?
Work supplies the daily bread; but it is cheerfulness that gives it a relish.

O philosophers! go in quest of pleasure! find us amusements without brutality, enjoyments without selfishness; in a word, invent a Carnival that will please everybody, and bring shame to no one.
Three o'clock .-- I have just shut my window, and stirred up my fire.

As this is a holiday for everybody, I will make it one for myself, too.