It perpetually retires from before them, yet without hiding itself from their sight, and in retiring draws them on.

At every moment they think they are about to grasp it; it escapes at every moment from their hold.
They are near enough to see its charms, but too far off to enjoy them; and before they have fully tasted its delights they die.

To these causes must be attributed that strange melancholy which oftentimes will haunt the inhabitants of democratic countries in the midst of their abundance, and that disgust at life which sometimes seizes upon them in the midst of calm and easy circumstances.

Complaints are made in France that the number of suicides increases; in America suicide is rare, but insanity is said to be more common than anywhere else.

These are all different symptoms of the same disease.