prestige, 
come in myriads about us ; and from that narrow aperture through 
which this new  pierces into our , a flood of light is poured 
that illumines our path to the very verge of the grave. How many 
a success in after days is reckoned as but one step in that ladder of 
wordnetdesire some boyish review has framed, perhaps, after all, destined 
to be the first and only one ! With what  we hail some goal 
attained, some object of our wordnetdesire gained, less for its present benefit, 
than as the accomplishment of some youthful prophecy, when pictur- 
ing to our  all that we would have in life, we whispered within 
us the flattery of success. 

Who is there who has not had some such moment, and who would 
exchange it, with all the delusive and deceptive influences by which it 
comes surrounded, for the greatest actual  he has partaken of? 
Alas, alas ! it is only in the boundless expanse of such imaginings, 
unreal and fictitious as they are, that we are truly blessed. Our 
choicest blessings in life come ever so associated with some sources 
of , that the cup of  is not pure, but dregged in bitter- 
ness. 

To such a world of bright  did I awake on the morning 
after the events I have detailed in my last chapter. The