men, who, never having lived their lives, cannot expect to have more than a
surface knowledge of the people whose destinies are in their hands. The Native
States will, I fancy, be none the better governed, and those who rule them will
miss much which has tended to widen the lives of the men who came before
them, and who dwelt among the people while they were still as God made them.
And those who led these lives? The years will dim the memories of all they once
learned and knew and experienced; and as they indite the caustic minute to the
suffering subordinate, and strangle with swaddlings of red-tape the tender babe
of prosperity, they will perchance look back with wonder at the men they once
were, and thinking of their experiences in the days of long ago will marvel that
each one of them as he left the desert experienced the pang of Chillon's prisoner:
—
Even I
Regained my freedom with a sigh.