I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose. I never thrust my nose into other men's porridge. It is no bread and butter of mine: Every man for himself and God for us all. I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be desired; and when there is no more to be desired, there is an end of it. In hell there is no retention. Is it possible your pragmatical worship should not know that the comparisons made between wit and wit, courage and courage, beauty and beauty, birth and birth, are always odious and ill taken? It is the part of a wise man to keep himself to-day for to-morrow, and not to venture all his eggs in one basket. Let us not throw the rope after the bucket. I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and reasonably applied, but to be forever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar. One man scorned and covered with scars still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world will be better for this. | 
