If there be a regal solitude, it is a sick-bed. How the patient lords it there!
He has left off reading altogether, to the great improvement of his originality.
I have had playmates, I have had companions; In my days of childhood, in my joyful school days - All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
Oh call it by some better name, For friendship sounds too cold.
When true hearts lie wither'd And fond ones are flown, Oh, who would inhabit This bleak world alone?
How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! Supreme selfishness is inculcated upon him as his only duty.