But then do we not know that our thoughts are
formed, and our beliefs modelled, not on the outward signs or
intrinsic evidences of things,--as would be the case were we always
rational,--but by the inner workings of the mind itself? At the
present turn of my life I can believe in nothing that is gracious."
"Ah, you mean that you are unhappy. You have come to grief in some
of your doings or belongings, and therefore find that all things are
bitter to the taste. I have had my palate out of order too; but the
proper appreciation of flavours has come back to me. Bah,--how
noisome was that Dead Sea water!"
"The Dead Sea waters are noisome," he said; "and I have been
drinking of them by long draughts."
"Long draughts!" I answered, thinking to console him. "Draughts
have not been long which can have been swallowed in your years.
Your disease may be acute, but it cannot yet have become chronic. A
man always thinks at the moment of each misfortune that that special
misery will last his lifetime; but God is too good for that. I do
not know what ails you; but this day twelvemonth will see you again
as sound as a roach.
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