It is not to be wondered at that many men and women, by having
the responsibilities of men and women thrust upon them too early,
are shocked, and look back upon the shady places they have left,
and long to rest their eyes there. It is not strange that men
recoil from a plunge into the world's cold waters, and long to
creep back into the bath from which they have suddenly risen. But
that man or woman, having fully passed into the estate of man and
woman, should desire to become children again, is impossible. It
is only the half-developed, the badly-developed, the imperfectly
nurtured, the mean-spirited, and the demoralized, who look back to
the innocence, the helplessness, and the simple animal joy and
content of childhood with genuine regret for their loss. I want no
better evidence that a person's life is regarded by himself as a
failure, than that furnished by his honest willingness to be
restored to his childhood. When a man is ready to relinquish
the power of his mature reason, his strength and skill for
self-support, the independence of his will and life, his bosom
companion and children, his interest in the stirring affairs of
his time, his part in deciding the great questions which agitate
his age and nation, his intelligent apprehension of the relations
which exist between himself and his Maker, and his rational hope
of immortality--if he have one--for the negative animal content,
and frivolous enjoyments of a child, he does not deserve the name
of a man;--he is a weak, unhealthy, broken-down creature, or a
base poltroon.

Yet I know there are those who will read this sentence with tears,
and with complaint. I know there are those whose existence has
been a long struggle with sickness and trial--whose lives have
been crowded with great griefs and disappointments--who sit in