"Devil," I exclaimed, "do you dare approach me? And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head? Begone, vile insect! Or rather, stay, that I may trample you to dust!"

"I expected this reception," said the dæmon. "All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!"

I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.

I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!

The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village.

It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being; all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct.

I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it.

If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched.

Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock.