The Agony Of My Feelings

Thus Strangely Are Our Souls Constructed, And By Slight Ligaments Are We Bound To Prosperity And Ruin.

Did You Not Call This A Glorious Expedition? And Wherefore Was It Glorious? Not Because The Way Was Smooth And Placid As A Southern Sea, But Because It Was Full Of Dangers And Terror, Because At Every New Incident Your Fortitude Was To Be Called Forth And Your Courage Exhibited, Because Danger And Death Surrounded It, And These You Were Brave To Overcome. For This Was It A Glorious , For This Was It An Honorable Undertaking

A Truce To Philosophy!—life Is Before Me, And I Rush Into Possession. Hope, Glory, Love, And Blameless Ambition Are My Guides, And My Soul Knows No Dread. What Has Been, Though Sweet, Is Gone; The Present Is Good Only Because It Is About To Change, And The To Come Is All My Own.

Even Where The Affections Are Not Strongly Moved By Any Superior Excellence, The Companions Of Our Childhood Always Possess A Certain Power Over Our Minds Which Hardly Any Later Friend Can Obtain. They Know Our Infantine Dispositions, Which, However They May Be Afterwards Modified, Are Never Eradicated; And They Can Judge Of Our Actions With More Certain Conclusions As To The Integrity Of Our Motives.

Supremely Frightful Would Be The Effect Of Any Human Endeavor To Mock The Stupendous Mechanism Of The Creator Of The World.