FRANCESCA CARRARA.
203
—a thousand hopes and wishes rose in vivid colours upon her imagination. She knew as little what she asked as what she anticipated; still the future was before her, and all know what the future is to youth. Nothing more truly proves that life is but a trial—than the pleasures which depart, the sense of enjoyment which deadens, and the disappointments which spring up at every step in our pilgrimage. Could life preserve its illusions, who would be fit to die? Vanity of vanities is written on this side of the grave, but that we may more clearly discern that on the other shines the hope of immortality.
