Thomas De Quincey

Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers: System of the Heavens As Revealed by Lord Rosse's Telescopes. Mo Thomas De Quincey

'To be weak,' we need not the great archangel's voice to tell us, '_is to be miserable_.' All weakness is suffering and humiliation, no matter for its mode or its subject. Beyond all other weakness, therefore, and by a sad prerogative, as more miserable than what is most miserable in all, that capital weakness of man which regards the _tenure_ of his enjoyments and his power to protect, even for a moment, the crown of flowers--flowers, at the best, how frail and few! --which sometimes settles upon his haughty brow.