The Lord had taken away my _friends_, and I knew not where he had laid them.

I paced round the wilderness, seeking a comforter.

I prayed that I might be restored to that _state of innocence_, in which I had wandered in those shades.
Methought my request was heard, for it seemed as though the stains of manhood were passing from me, and I were relapsing into the purity and simplicity of childhood.

I was content to have been moulded into a perfect child.

I stood still, as in a trance.