PART THREE

The Moth and the Flame

SPRING 1793

Feeling! Life! Where did you go?

In this abyss through which I fall,

Now shadows force me to recall

Times that long ago did flow.

This darkened path that is my fate,

These clouds that cover me of late,

These veils which all my thoughts deprave,

This cold that chills my every vein,

This weakness—all serve to explain

That I’m already in the grave.

—JOHAN HENRIC KELLGREN, 1793