I take pleasure in poetry and religion, novels and novellas; occasional critiques of the arts I also employ and enjoy. Among the paintings and scriptures and sculptures and expressions of antiquity I find my comfort, instead of among the incesssant and aggressive throng of inempt-inane-insufficient and insubstatial denziens that populate this world of ours- Oh -! those whom from the womb to the tomb destroy themselves and their neighbours!- for what? These I avoid ardently for the sake of my heart-( wich is not modern)- its tendrils of tenderness. I am in short a sort of Orpheus.