o feel a strange
uneasiness; I used to wonder why I could not sleep; why I should find
such pleasure in gazing upon the stars that I could not tear myself from
their presence; why my heart should suddenly beat with joy on seeing
certain colours, or grow sad even to tears on hearing certain sounds.
At times I was so alarmed on comparing my continual agitation with the
indifference of other men of my class that I even began to imagine that
I was mad. But I soon consoled myself with the reflection that such
madness was sweet, and I would rather have ceased to exist than be cured
of it. Now that I know these things have been thought beautiful in all
times and by all intelligent beings, I understand what they are, and how
they are useful to man. I find joy in the thought that there is not a
flower, not a colour, not a breath of air, which has not absorbed the
minds and stirred the hearts of other men till it has received a name
sacred among all peoples. Since I have learnt that it is allowed to man,
without degrading his reason, to people the universe and interpret it by
his dreams, I live wholly in the contemplation of the universe; and
when the sight of the misery and crime in the world bruises my heart
and shakes my reason, I fall back upon my dreams. I say to myself that,
since all men are united in their love of the works of God, some day
they will also be united in their love of one another. I imagine that
education grows more and more perfect from father to son. It may be that
I am the first untutored man who has divined truths of which no glimpse
was given him from without. It may be, too, that many others before
myself have been perplexed by the workings of their hearts and brains
and have died without ever finding an answer to the riddle." "Ah, we poor
folk," added Patience, "we are never forbidden excess in labour, or in
wine, or in any of the debauches which may destroy our minds. There are
some people who pay dearly for the work of our arms, so that the poor,
in their eagerness to satisfy the wants of their families, may work
beyond their strength. There are taverns and other places more dangerous
still, from which, so it is said, the government draws a good profit;
and there are priests, too, who get up in their pulpits to tell us what
we owe to the lord of our village, but never what the lord owes to us.
Nowhere is there a school where they teach us our real rights; where
they show us how to distinguish our true