He advised me to have recourse to Daran, who, in fact gave me some relief: but Morand, when he gave Madam Dupin an account of the state I was in, declared to her I should not be alive in six months.

This afterwards came to my ear, and made me reflect seriously on my situation and the folly of sacrificing the repose of the few days I had to live to the slavery of an employment for which I felt nothing but disgust.

Besides, how was it possible to reconcile the severe principles I had just adopted to a situation with which they had so little relation?
Should not I, the cash-keeper of a receiver-general of finances, have preached poverty and disinterestedness with a very ill grace?
These ideas fermented so powerfully in my mind with the fever, and were so strongly impressed, that from that time nothing could remove them; and, during my convalescence, I confirmed myself with the greatest coolness in the resolutions I had taken during my delirium.

I forever abandoned all projects of fortune and advancement, resolved to pass in independence and poverty the little time I had to exist.

I made every effort of which my mind was capable to break the fetters of prejudice, and courageously to do everything that was right without giving myself the least concern about the judgment of others.