Nigrinus

For he went on to praise philosophy and the freedom that it gives, and to ridicule the things that are popularly considered blessings— wealth and reputation, dominion and honour, yes and purple and gold—things accounted very desirable by most men, and till then by me also. I took it all in with eager, wide-open soul, and at the moment I couldn’t imagine what had come over me ; I was all confused. Then I felt hurt because he had criticised what was dearest to me—wealth and money and reputation,—and I all but cried over their downfall ;

and then I thought them paltry and ridiculous, and was glad to be looking up, as it were, out of the murky atmosphere of my past life to.a clear sky and a great light. In consequence, I actually forgot my eye and its ailment—would you believe it ?—and by degrees grew sharper-sighted in my soul ; which, all unawares, I had been carrying about in a purblind condition till then.