When I look back upon my early days I am stirred by the thought of the number of people whom I have to thank for what they gave me or for what they were to me. At the same time I am haunted by a [painful knowledge] of the little gratitude I really showed them while I was young. How many of them have said farewell to life without my having made clear to them what it meant to me to receive f rom them so much kindness or so much care? Many a time have I, with a fe:eling of shame, said quietly to myself over a grave the words which my mouth ought to have spoken to the departed, while he or she was still in the flesh.
