The whirl of last cigarettes, begun at twenty, continues still. My resolutions are less extreme, and my weakness finds greater indulgence in my elderly soul. When we are old, we smile at life and at everything it contains. I can say also that for some time I have been smoking many cigarettes … and they are not the last. On the flyleaf of a dictionary I find this note of mine, recorded in an elegant, even ornate, hand: “Today, 2 February 1886, I am transferring from the school of law to the faculty of chemistry. Last cigarette!!” That was a very important last cigarette. I remember all the
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