"'Shall we not,' continued I, 'obey the dictates of nature, rather than confine ourselves to the forced, unnatural rules of------and--and shall the halcyon days of youth slip through our fingers unenjoyed?'"
"'With a good heart she possessed a poetical imagination, and an unbounded thirst for novelty; but these airy talents, not counterpoised with judgment, or perhaps serious reflection, instead of adding to her happiness, were the cause of her ruin.'"
"'Our hearts,' continued the old man, addressing me, 'are loosened from their attachment to this world by repeated strokes of misfortune. Wisely it is ordered thus. Every calamity severs a string from the heart--until one scene of sorrow on the back of another, matures us for eternity--Thus are our affections estranged from this scene of misery. The cord that detains the bird is severed in two--and it flies away.'"
-William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy (US, 1789)
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