The Count of Monte Cristo

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from her father, now a madman, and her brother who died last September
with his mother. Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny,
Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who like Satan thought himself
for an instant equal to God, but who now acknowledges with Christian
humility that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom.
Perhaps those prayers may soften the remorse he feels in his heart. As
for you, Morrel, this is the secret of my conduct towards you. There is
neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison
of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest
grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt
what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of
living.

"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never
forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future
to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--'_Wait and
hope_.'--Your friend,