_Hygiene. Projects._--The more one wills, the better one wills. The more one works, the better one works, and the more one wants to work. The more one produces, the more fertile one grows. Morally as physically, I have always had the sensation of the gulf, not only of the gulf of sleep, but the gulf of action, of revery, of memory, of desire, of regret, of remorse, of beauty, of number, etc. I have cultivated my hysteria with joy and terror. Now, I always have vertigo, and to-day, January 23, 1862, I felt a strange warning. I felt pass over me a gust from the wing of imbecility. LXXIII How many presentiments and signs already sent by God, that it is _high time_ to act, to regard the present moment as the most important moment, and to make my _perpetual joy_ of my usual torment, that is, of work! LXXIV _Hygiene, Conduct, Morals._--Every moment, we are crushed by the idea and sensation of time. And there are only two means of escaping that nightmare, of forgetting it: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work fortifies us. Let us choose. The more we make use of one of these means, the more the other fills us with repugnance. One can forget time only by using it. Everything is accomplished bit by bit. De Maistre and Edgar Poe taught me to reason. There is no long work but that which one dares not begin. It becomes a nightmare. LXXV _Hygiene._--By putting off what one has to do, one runs the risk of never being able to do it. By postponing conversion, one risks being damned. To heal everything, misery, disease and melancholy, absolutely nothing is needed but the love of work. LXXVI Precious Notes.--Do every day what prudence and duty dictate. If you work every day, life will be more endurable. Work six days without a let-up. To find fields, Know thyself. Always to be a poet, even in prose. Grand style (nothing is more beautiful than the commonplace). First begin, then make use of logic and analysis. Any hypothesis whatsoever tends to its conclusion. Find the daily frenzy. LXXVII _Hygiene, Conduct, Morals._--Debts. Friends (my mother, friends, myself). Thus, 1000 francs should be divided into two parts of 500 francs each, and the second divided into three. LXXVIII --To do one's duty every day and trust in God for the morrow. The one way to make money is to work in a disinterested fashion. --Concentrated wisdom. Toilet, prayer, labor. Prayer: charity, wisdom and strength. Without charity, I am but a clashing cymbal. --My humiliations have been mercies of God. Is my egoistical phase at an end? The gift of responding to the moment's need, exactitude, in a word, should infallibly bring its recompense. LXXIX _Hygiene, Conduct, Morals._--Jean 300, my mother 200, myself 300,--800 francs a month. To work from six in the morning, on an empty stomach, till noon. To work blindly, aimlessly, like a madman. We shall see the result. I suppose I base my destiny on a few hours' uninterrupted toil.