Monday, December the 13th, 2004
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“It was midnight of the new year, and an aged man stood thoughtfully at the window. He gazed with a long, despairing look, upon the fixed, eternal, and glorious heaven, and down upon the silent, still, and snow-white earth, whereon was none so joyless, so sleepless as he. For his grave stood open near him; it was covered only with the snows of age, not decked with the green of youth; and he brought with him, from a long and rich life, nothing save errors, crimes, and sickness—a wasted body, a desolate soul, a breast filled with poison, and an old age heavy with repentance and sorrow.” — John Mather Austin, Golden Steps To Respectability, Usefulness And Happiness