I smiled at everything; the whole world was Paradise in my eyes, and it seemed to me that God was floating in the air! Moreover, this feeling was not the excitement of the moment: it might be more intense on certain days, but at the same time it continued through the ordinary course of my life.

Many years thus passed for me in an expansion of heart, and a trustfulness which prevented sorrow, if not from coming, at least from staying with me.

Sure of not being alone, I soon took heart again, like the child who recovers its courage, because it hears its mother's voice close by.

Why have I lost that confidence of my childhood?
Shall I never feel again so deeply that God is here?
How strange the association of our thoughts! A day of the month recalls my infancy, and see, all the recollections of my former years are growing up around me! Why was I so happy then?
I consider well, and nothing is sensibly changed in my condition.

I possess, as I did then, health and my daily bread; the only difference is, that I am now responsible for myself! As a child, I accepted life when it came; another cared and provided for me.