So long as I fulfilled my present duties I was at peace within, and I left the future to the prudence of my father! My destiny was a ship, in the directing of which I had no share, and in which I sailed as a common passenger.

There was the whole secret of childhood's happy security.

Since then worldly wisdom has deprived me of it.

When my lot was intrusted to my own and sole keeping, I thought to make myself master of it by means of a long insight into the future.

I have filled the present hour with anxieties, by occupying my thoughts with the future; I have put my judgment in the place of Providence, and the happy child is changed into the anxious man.
A melancholy course, yet perhaps an important lesson.