Human Passions Against Eternal Laws

Only One Hour In The Normal Day Is More Pleasurable Than The Hour Spent In Bed With A Book Before Going To Sleep, And That Is The Hour Spent In Bed With A Book After Being Called In The Morning.

We Know One Another's Faults, Virtues, Catastrophes, Mortifications, Triumphs, Rivalries, Desires, And How Long We Can Each Hang By Our Hands To A Bar. We Have Been Banded Together Under Pack Codes And Tribal Laws.

Sleeping In A Bed -- It Is, Apparently, Of Immense Importance. Against Those Who Sleep, From Choice Or Necessity, Elsewhere Society Feels Righteously Hostile. It Is Not Done. It Is Disorderly, Anarchical.

Every Year, In The Deep Midwinter, There Descends Upon This World A Terrible Fortnight. ... Every Shop Is A Choked Mass Of Humanity ... Nerves Are Jangled And Frayed, Purses Emptied To No Purposes, All Amusements And All Occupations Suspended In Favor Of Frightful Businesses With Brown Paper, String, Letters, Cards, Stamps, And Crammed Post Offices. This Period Is Doubtless A Foretaste Of Whatever Purgatory Lies In Store For Human Creatures.

Cruelty Was The Devil, And Most People Were, In One Way Or Another, Cruel. Tyranny, Suppression, Persecution, Torture, Slavery, War, Neglect - All Were Cruel. The World Was Acid And Sour With Hate, Fat With Greed, Yellow With The Triumph Of The Strong And The Rich.