ing damp; one breathes here now the rancid 
air of desolation. 
In this world, so narrow, yet so filled with 
loathing, one single well-known object smiles 
on me,—the phial of laudanum; and old and 
terrible mistress; like all mistresses, alas! fer-
tile in caresses and in treacheries. 
Oh yes, Time has reappeared. Time lords it 
now, and with the ugly oldster has returned all 
his devilish rout of memories, regrets, spasms, 
fears, agonies, nightmares, rages, nerve-
storms. 
I swear to you that the seconds now tick off 
like a mighty and a solemn bell, and each one 
leaping from the clock cries: “I am Life, Life in-
tolerable, Life implacable, Life!” 
There is only one second in human life 
whose mission it is to announce good news—
the good news which breathes into every heart 
an inexplicable fear. 
Yea, Time reigns; he has resumed his brutal 
dictatorship, and he drives me on, as if I were 
an ox, with his double goad. On, then, thick-
head!—Sweat, slave! live, damnèd wretch!