Forty. To say the truth, I have no such place of happiness and repose in view as you have mentioned. I lost sight of it soon after setting out. The darkness came down on me so thick that I could scarcely see three paces before me, and the road was so rough that I was forced to be content to pick my steps one by one, and had no time to think of the distant future.
Twenty. I cannot believe it. There is many a lesser prize, many lower heights, in your path, to be gained, which should serve as encouragements and way-marks. I cannot believe that you have lost sight of the ultimate object of your life.
Forty. You have odd views of things! The fact was, when with much exertion and difficulty I had gained one of those lesser prizes, a little social distinction, for example, I was so fatigued that I was glad to sit down a moment, and enjoy my acquisition. Finding it, however, not in every respect suited to my desire, I pushed on, and attained the next of those luminous points, which to you are only way-marks to a higher one beyond. From these I took a survey of the path before me; and seeing that its length rather increased than diminished as I obtained clearer views of the intervening country, and feeling at the same time my strength diminishing, and that 'courageous heart' of yours, (the hope and spirits of inexperienced youth,) growing fainter in its pulsations, I gave up the chase, and suffered myself to settle down into, and become one of, the million.
Twenty. Oh! weak of faith and cowardly!
Forty. Oh! ignorant and presumptuous!
Twenty. Well; it does not become us to bandy names. So you are content to live for nothing?
Forty. I live for something; for my daily bread, and for the pleasures that to-morrow, or at the farthest the next day, may bring forth.
Twenty. And is not that living for nought? You have become an ant, whose thoughts are confined within its cell, and whose cares are centered on its single little kernel of corn. You are a fixture, a vegetable, a sensitive plant, a shell-fish. These are lying words of yours; I will not believe them.
Forty. If you do not credit my report, you can go forward as you have proposed, and satisfy yourself by experience.
Twenty. That will I! Go forth on wings, undeterred by timorous and hesitating counsels. I know it is not so. Can I not see with my own eyes?