It Is With The Approach

Often, Before Returning Home, I Would Take A Long And Roundabout Way And Pass By The Peaceful Ramparts From Where I Had Glimpses Of Other Provinces, And A Sight Of The Distant Country.

I Recall Feeling An Almost Delicious Terror When One Day I Found Myself Alone In The Midst Of Tall June Grasses That Grew High As My Head. But Here The Secret Working Of Self Consciousness Is Almost Too Entangled With The Things Of The Past For Me To Explain It.

My Books Were Always Full Of Ink Blots, Always Stained And Covered With Smeared Sketches And Pictures, Which One Draws Idly When His Attention Wanders From His Task.

But It Is True That Sometimes An Enveloping Darkness Aids One To Clearer Vision; As In A Panorama Building, For Example, Where The Obscurity About The Entrance Prepares One Better For The Climax, And Gives The Scene Depicted A More Real And Vivid Appearance.

Egypt, The Egypt Of Antiquity, At A Later Time, Exercised A Mysterious Fascination Over Me. I Recognized A Picture Of It Immediately, Without Hesitation And Astonishment, In An Illustrated Magazine.