Stories for Pleasure and Edification

turned their backs, and passed by without feeling; and those—who themselves once lived off their fortune The original "Vermögen" implies both their wealth and their means of living—cast their eyes to the ground at the sight of them, as if they had never seen the unfortunate women.

Such is the common course of the world: rich people, raised in abundance, do not know the suffering of poverty: because their stomachs are always bursting with food, it does not occur to them that anyone else in the world can still be hungry.

Only he who has been unhappy and poor can come to know mankind; for to him who always lives in abundance, this benefit The term "Wohlthat" (modern: Wohltat) usually means a blessing or a kind deed; the narrator suggests here that knowing the "true" (often ugly) nature of people is a grim sort of gift is not granted.

Benefit! is it really a benefit to come to know monsters Referring to the "friends of good fortune" who proved to be ungrateful and cruel? — Yes, it is a cruel benefit, and yet a benefit nonetheless. Thank heaven, unfortunate one! its hard trial leads you into the arms of peace—and only you know the? value of what is noble.

Adelaide was torn from the lap of abundance to the most extreme misery; ten times over she feels the bleeding wound of her her-