You think that no one was ever chastened as you are.

You say, with Jeremiah, 'No prophet is afflicted like unto this prophet!' Now you are simply bearing your own share of the world's trouble.

How can you hope to escape the universal lot?
There are dozens of people within sight of this height of land who have borne as much, and must bear as much again.

I know this must seem a hard philosophy, and I should not preach it to any but a stout little spirit like yours, my Polly.

These things come to all of us; they are stern facts; they are here, and they must be borne; but it makes all the difference in the world how we bear them.