Page:Whyte-Melville--Bones and I.djvu/42

 The scene thus conjured up awoke its corresponding fancies. "Have you never reflected," said I, "on the utter fallacy of that French proverb which affirms, 'Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte?' Unless indeed it refers to immorality, the downward career of which beats the rolling stone of Sisyphus in a canter. But on all other journeys through life, it seems to me that not only the first steps, but the first leagues, are intensely laborious and unsatisfactory. Disappointment lies in wait at every milestone, and the traveller feels tired already ere he has reached the crest of the first hill. All crowns, I grant you, like those of the Isthmian Games, are mere parsley at best; but in these days no competitor ever wins that worthless headdress till he is so bald that common decency demands a covering. Where are the heaven-born statesmen now, to rule the destinies