"I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and consequently know their futility, and do not regret their loss.

Those who have no experience are dazzled with there [Transcriber's note: their ?] glare, but I have been behind the scenes and have seen all the coarse pulleys, which exhibit and move all the gaudy machines that excite the admiration of the ignorant audience." Nor is scholarship enough.

From Solomon to Burke, the wisest men have been the saddest of men.

The Scottish physician who ordered his secretary to select from his library all the books upon medicine and surgery that were printed prior to 1880 and sell them, tells us how futile is the pursuit of wisdom and how rapidly the systems of to-day become the cast-off garments of to-morrow.

Nor must the perfect man represent power and wealth alone, for "the wealth of Croesus cannot bring sleep to the sick man tossing upon his silken couch, and all the Alexanders and Napoleons have shed bitter tears, conquering or conquered." He who is merchant or scholar or ruler, and only that, climbs his pillar like Simeon Stylites.
All such know not that the world itself is a pillar all too small for the soul to stand upon.