I am the first novelist in Europe.

I have ranged with eagle wing over the wide regions of literature, and perched on every eminence in its turn.

I have gazed with eagle eyes on the sun of philosophy, and fathomed the mysterious depths of the human mind.

All languages are familiar to me, all thoughts are known to me, all men understood by me.

I have gathered wisdom from the honeyed lips of Plato, as we wandered in the gardens of Acadames--wisdom, too, from the mouth of Job Johnson, as we smoked our 'backy in Seven Dials.