If they look at the vigor of their young, it is to recollect that
they themselves once were so, and to repine at the recollection.
Take my word for it, there is not a dad among them, that does not
envy his own son the excellence of his limbs, and the long time of
exercise and enjoyment which they seemingly assure him."

"Impossible!" exclaimed the elder of the two travellers. "Impossible!
I should be sorry to think as you do. But you, Warham, can not
understand these things. You are an habitual unbeliever--the most
unfortunate of all mankind."

"The most fortunate, rather. I have but few burdens of credulity
to carry. The stars be blessed, my articles of faith are neither
very many nor very cumbrous. I should be sorry if my clients were
so few."

"I should be sorry, Warham, if I had so little feeling as yourself."

"And I should be still more sorry, uncle, if I had half so much.
Why, sir, yours is in such excess, that you continually mistake the
joys and sorrows of other people for your own. You laugh and weep
with them alternately; and, until all's done and over, you never
seem to discover that the business was none of yours;--that you
had none of the pleasure which made you laugh, and might have been
spared all the unnecessary suffering which moved your tears. 'Pon
my soul, sir, you pass a most unprofitable life."

"You mistake, Warham, I have shared both; and my profits have been
equally great from both sources. My susceptibility has been an
exceeding great gain to me, and has quickened all my senses. There