Failures

A failure broke the monotonous uniformity -- a few exercises, 
short easy sentences, and we begin anew: open the door,
admit we're done. They mean to expel him from the school.
I regret to hear it.

A tree has roots, a trunk, and stems, and each branch or bough
has twigs; and these bear leaves, and some have fruit, as pears
and plums, and figs.

What is perfection? Deprived of all but innocence, the elephant
took the child up with his trunk, and placed it on his back,
and never afterward obeyed another master. Other models follow, 
examples for practice. Sentences lengthen, always of course
the unassisted production of the pupil himself, so what use these 
suggestions, dictations?

I fix my eyes on different objects, and soon perceive I have the power
of losing and recovering them; and that I can at pleasure destroy
and renew this beautiful part of my existence.