Summer was sensual

Hummock on the coast of Quincy, Mass., the town where Henry Adams grew up. Back then, much of it was semi-rural.

“Winter and summer, then, were two hostile lives, and bred two separate natures.  Winter was always the effort to live; summer was tropical license. Whether the children rolled in the grass, or waded in the brook, or swam in the salt ocean, or sailed in the bay, or fished for smelts in the creeks, or netted minnows in the salt-marshes, or took to the pine-woods and the granite quarries, or chased musk-rats and hunted snapping turtles in the swamps, or mushrooms or nuts on the autumn hills, summer and country were always sensual living, while winter was always compulsory learning. Summer was the multiplicity of nature; winter was school.”

— From The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams (1838-1918), famed writer, most notably as an historian. His paternal grandfather was President John Quincy Adams,who was a son of Founding Father and second President John Adams.

Previous
Previous

Whither the status of the historic Boston Fish Pier?

Next
Next

Time to move your car again