Excerpt from The Man at Arms: Or Henri De Cerons; A Romance It is difficult to discover what are the exact sources from which spring the thrilling feelings of joy and satisfaction with which we look back to the days of our early youth, and to the scenes in which our infancy was passed. It matters not, or at least very little, what are the pleasures which we have enjoyed in after years, what are the delights that surround us, what are the blessings which Heaven has cast upon our lot. Whenever the mind, either as a voluntary act, or from accidental associations, recalls, by the aid of memory, the period of childhood and the things which surround it, there comes over us a gladdening sensation of pure and simple joys which we never taste again at any time of life. It must be, at least in part, that the delights of those days were framed in innocence and ignorance of evil; and that He who declared that of such as little children consisted the kingdom of Heaven, has allotted to the babes of this world, in the brightness of their innocence, joys similar to those of the world beyond, joys that never cloy, and that leave no regret. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.