Not those who are in pursuit of fortune, or of fame, or of knowledge, or of enjoyment, or of happiness; though with regard to all of these, as far as any of them are attainable, there is more pleasure in the pursuit than in the attainment.
Not those who are at sea, or travelling in a stage coach.
Not the man who is shaving himself.
Not those who have the tooth ache, or who are having a tooth drawn.
The fashionable beauty might; and the fashionable singer, and the fashionable opera dancer, and the actor who is in the height of his power and reputation. So might the alderman at a city feast. So would the heir who is squandering a large fortune faster than it was accumulated for him. And the thief who is not taken, and the convict who is not hanged, and the scoffer at religion whose heart belies his tongue.
Not the wise and the good.
Not those who are in sickness or in sorrow.
Not I.
But were I endowed with the power of suspending the effect of time upon the things around me, methinks there are some of my flowers which should neither fall nor fade: decidedly my kitten should never attain to cathood; and I am afraid my little boy would continue to “mis-speak half-uttered words;” and never, while I live, outgrow that epicene dress of French grey, half European, half Asiatic in its fashion.