Most of the world would be surprised to know how few of our thoughts are really original with ourselves. What we write and say is, for the most part, a kind of mosaic interweaving of ideas and recollections gathered together out of other people’s talk or books. The combination and rearrangement of them is about all we can call our own. When a man does really evolve an original thought out of his own mind, it is the exception, rather than the rule. It is usually the fruit, either of patient study, or of fresh and vivid experience.
France Seward's Summer Dress
C. 1825
Belonged to William Henry Seward’s wife, Frances Adeline Seward. She is wearing it in a photograph taken in the Seward’s Washington D.C. garden around 1863. This is a white dotted Swiss summer dress with high waist (Empire), wide neck and short double puffed sleeves. Lace on bottom of sleeves.
