Alas! When I had full leisure to look on life as life must be looked on by such as me, I found it but a hopeless desert: tawny sands, with no green fields, no palm-tree, no well in view.

The hopes which are dear to youth, which bear it up and lead it on, I knew not and dared not know.

If they knocked at my heart sometimes, an inhospitable bar to admission must be inwardly drawn.

When they turned away thus rejected, tears sad enough sometimes flowed: but it could not be helped: I dared not give such guests lodging.

So mortally did I fear the sin and weakness of presumption.
Religious reader, you will preach to me a long sermon about what I have just written, and so will you, moralist: and you, stern sage: you, stoic, will frown; you, cynic, sneer; you, epicure, laugh.