The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!

At any time, and under any circumstances of human interest, is it not strange to see how little real hold the objects of the natural world amid which we live can gain on our hearts and minds? We go to Nature for comfort in trouble, and sympathy in joy, only in books. Admiration of those beauties of the inanimate world, which modern poetry so largely and so eloquently describes, is not, even in the best of us, one of the original instincts of our nature.

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare.

It is the nature of truth to struggle to the light.

I have always maintained that the one important phenomenon presented by modern society is - the enormous prosperity of Fools.

Peace rules the day, where reason rules the mind.