I have much the same nervous dread of it as I have of an angry sea breaking in surf on the shingle.

If I ventured out in it I should be tossed hither and thither and broken on the rocks, and I should perish.

I prefer to stand aloof and watch.

If I had a little more of daring in my nature I might achieve something.

I am afraid I am but a waster in the world's factory; but kind Fate, instead of pitching me on the rubbish-heap, has preserved me, perhaps has set me under a glass case, in her own museum, as a curiosity.