False was all this⁠—false all but the affections of our nature, and the links of sympathy with pleasure or pain. There was but one good and one evil in the world⁠—life and death. The pomp of rank, the assumption of power, the possessions of wealth vanished like morning mist. One living beggar had become of more worth than a national peerage of dead lords⁠—alas the day!⁠—than of dead heroes, patriots, or men of genius. There was much of degradation in this: for even vice and virtue had lost their attributes⁠—life⁠—life⁠—the continuation of our animal mechanism⁠—was the Alpha and Omega of the desires, the prayers, the prostrate ambition of human race.