Why say, with so much bitterness, that in this world, constituted as it is, there is no air for all lungs, no employment for all minds?
Is there not opportunity for calm and serious study?
and is not that a refuge, a hope, a field within the reach of all of us?
With it, evil days are passed over without their weight being felt; every one can make his own destiny; every one can employ his life nobly.

This is what I have done, and would do again if I had to recommence my career: I would choose that which has brought me to where I am.

Blind, and suffering without hope, and almost without intermission, I may give this testimony, which from me will not appear suspicious; there is something in this world better than sensual enjoyments, better than fortune, better than health itself: it is devotion to science." Endnotes for Chapter XI.
{1} Autobiographical Preface to the 'Narratives of the Merovingian Times.'.