“It was no use.
“Many sententiously remarked, ‘One knows what one has got—one does not know what one is getting.’
“Would you believe it! The women nearly saved me! Crowds of them aspired to become men. Fortunately, my black-guards—except one or two—categorically refused to adopt the female sex.
“In despair, I dangled before them the attractive prospect of a life prolonged indefinitely, resuming its course at each new incarnation.
“‘Life, replied the three-score-years-and-tenners, is already too long, as God has limited it. We desire nothing more than to die.’
“‘But I shall restore to you all your desires, at the same time as your youth.’
“‘Thank you, the fate of desires is to remain ungratified!’
“Amongst adults I often received this reply:
“‘The charm of acquired experience is worth preserving from all things that might lessen that experience, and let us not risk diminishing it through the inexperienced rashness of adolescent blood.’
“There were some, however, who were ready to imitate Faust, and sign the pact of youth, but all these Nabobs I sounded offered me the same objection—the danger of the operation—the folly of risking life in the desire to prolong life.