What days of suffering I endure! You know since my boyhood all my dreams have been to rise to where I am.

I used to look at the throne in the choir and think how comfortable I should be in it--of the immense happiness of being a prince of the Church.

Well, now I am on the throne.

I have spent half a century removing the stones from my path, leaving my skin and even my flesh on the brambles of the hillside.

I only know how I was able to rise from the black mass and obtain a bishopric! Afterwards--now I am an archbishop! now I am a cardinal! At last I can rise no higher! And what is it all?
Happiness always floats before us like the cloud of light which guided the Israelites.