Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and of which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full of; but other things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries; and particularly, to increase my fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects, and those measures of life, which nature and Providence concurred to present me with, and to make my duty.
De másként kellett lennie, mert még mindig saját balszerencsém rabja voltam. Hibáimat tetézte, és így kétszeresére súlyosbította az igazságosan rám mért büntetést az, hogy makacsul ragaszkodtam a világjáró ösztöneim kiéléséhez, ahelyett a nyilvánvalóan áldásos lépés helyett, mellyel életem békés felvirágoztatását választottam volna célomul, ahogy azt a gondviselés is kötelességemnek szánta.