O! slippery state of things. What sudden turns,
What strange vicissitudes in the first leaf
Of man's sad history. To-day most happy,
And ere to-morrow's sun has set, most abject!
How scant the space between these vast extremes.
The recollection of my strange visions which, I confess, somewhat
affected me on my first waking, I put off from me at once. What were
they, after all, but dreams, "begot of nothing but vain fantasy?"
I reasoned thus, philosophically, reflectively, rationally, within
myself, as I dressed.
I determined to dismiss the matter from my thought at once; for, even if
it prognosticated anything and was intended to withdraw the veil from
futurity, it ought only to convince me of one fact, or fancy, namely,
that, notwithstanding that I might have a hard struggle to win my
darling, I should win her in the end:--that, also, in spite of
antagonistic mammas and contrary circumstances, she would then be my
own, my very own Min!
Would you not have thought the same in a like case?