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I see by your eagerness and the wonder and hope which your eyes

express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret

with which I am acquainted; that cannot be; listen patiently

until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am

reserved upon that subject. I will not lead you on, unguarded and

ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery.

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how

dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier

that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he

who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.