June 5, 1863
It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life. It can be all condensed into a simple sentence, and that sentence you will find in Grey’s Elegy: “The short and simple annals of the poor.”
And I add Grey’s lines for myself :
Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
One more thought: