I revolved again and again all that I remembered my mother to have told me

of my father's former life; I contemplated the few relics I possessed

belonging to him, which spoke of greater refinement than could be found

among the mountain cottages; but nothing in all this served as a guide to

lead me to another and pleasanter way of life. My father had been connected

with nobles, but all I knew of such connection was subsequent neglect. The

name of the king,--he to whom my dying father had addressed his latest

prayers, and who had barbarously slighted them, was associated only with

the ideas of unkindness, injustice, and consequent resentment. I was born

for something greater than I was--and greater I would become; but

greatness, at least to my distorted perceptions, was no necessary associate

of goodness, and my wild thoughts were unchecked by moral considerations

when they rioted in dreams of distinction. Thus I stood upon a pinnacle, a

sea of evil rolled at my feet; I was about to precipitate myself into it,

and rush like a torrent over all obstructions to the object of my wishes--

when a stranger influence came over the current of my fortunes, and changed

their boisterous course to what was in comparison like the gentle

meanderings of a meadow-encircling streamlet.

The Last Man