Ever escaping that which we would reach.
Tortured incessantly without relief.

Alone--bereft of God, angels, men--all.

Hopes gone, fears vanished, and love dead within.

These, and more than these, must man suffer." "August 28, 1844 .-- Is it not because I have been too much engaged in reading and paid too little attention to the centre that I have lost myself, as it were?
My position here distracts my attention and I lose the delight, intimate knowledge, and sweet consciousness of my interior life.

How can this be remedied?
I am constantly called of to matters in which I have no relish; and if I retreat for a short time, they rest on me like a load, so that I cannot call myself free at any moment.