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seek danger. I feel that I know what ought to be done, and as my presence
is necessary for the accomplishment of my plans, I will take especial care
to preserve my life.
"I am now going to undertake an office fitted for me. I cannot intrigue, or
work a tortuous path through the labyrinth of men's vices and passions; but
I can bring patience, and sympathy, and such aid as art affords, to the bed
of disease; I can raise from earth the miserable orphan, and awaken to new
hopes the shut heart of the mourner. I can enchain the plague in limits,
and set a term to the misery it would occasion; courage, forbearance, and
watchfulness, are the forces I bring towards this great work.
"
O, I shall be something now! From my birth I have aspired like the eagle
-but, unlike the eagle, my wings have failed, and my vision has been
-
blinded. Disappointment and sickness have hitherto held dominion over me;
twin born with me, my would, was for ever enchained by the shall not, of
these my tyrants. A shepherd-boy that tends a silly flock on the mountains,
was more in the scale of society than I. Congratulate me then that I have
found fitting scope for my powers. I have often thought of offering my
services to the pestilence-stricken towns of France and Italy; but fear of
paining you, and expectation of this catastrophe, withheld me. To England
and to Englishmen I dedicate myself. If I can save one of her mighty
spirits from the deadly shaft; if I can ward disease from one of her
smiling cottages, I shall not have lived in vain."
Strange ambition this! Yet such was Adrian. He appeared given up to
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