Matilda

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

What ecstatic moments have I passed in these dreams! How many tears I have shed; how often have I laughed aloud.

My child, if after this life I am permitted to see you again, if pain can purify the heart, mine will be pure: if remorse may expiate guilt, I shall be guiltless.

I told him how I had fallen at once from bliss to misery; how that for me there was no joy, no hope; that death however bitter would be the welcome seal to all my pangs; death the skeleton was to be beautiful as love.

You grieve because you are unhappy; it is happiness you seek but you despair of obtaining it.

But if you can bestow happiness on another; if you can give one other person only one hour of joy ought you not live to do it?