One of the youngest among
them, with great vehemence, pronounced him a hypocrite. Some
talked of the right of society to the labour of individuals, and
considered retirement as a desertion of duty. Others readily
allowed that there was a time when the claims of the public were
satisfied, and when a man might properly sequester himself, to
review his life and purify his heart.
One who appeared more affected with the narrative than the rest
thought it likely that the hermit would in a few years go back to
his retreat, and perhaps, if shame did not restrain or death
intercept him, return once more from his retreat into the world.
"For the hope of happiness," said he, "is so strongly impressed
that the longest experience is not able to efface it. Of the
present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess
the misery; yet when the same state is again at a distance,
imagination paints it as desirable. But the time will surely come
when desire will no longer be our torment and no man shall be
wretched but by his own fault.
"This," said a philosopher who had heard him with tokens of great
impatience, "is the present condition of a wise man.
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