Oh you people who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem so to you. From childhood on, my heart and mind were bent on kindly feelings, and I was ever eager to accomplish great deeds. But think that for six years now I have been hopelessly afflicted, made worse by senseless physicians, cheated year after year in the hope of improvement, finally compelled to face the prospect of a lasting malady (whose cure will take years or, perhaps, be impossible).