MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[1822] through the bronze-still boughs, which no breath ever stirree ^{[place = overwritten] d}. [1823] But
it was a day I dreaded too. [1824] So that I was sure it would come sooner
or later. [1825] For it wasn't so bad being in the forest, I could imagine
worse, and I could have stayed there till I died, unrepining, yes,
without pining for the light and the plain and the other amenities
of my region. [1826] For I knew them well, the amenities of my region, and
I considered that the forest was no worse.

[1827] And it was not only no
worse, to my mind, but it was better, in this sense, that I was in it.
[1828] That is a strange way, is it not, of looking at things. [1829] Perhaps less
strq ^{[place = overwritten] a}nge than it seems. [1830] For being in the forest, a place neither worse
nor better than the others, and being free to stay there, was it not
natural I should think highly of it, not because of what it was, but
because I was in it. [1831] For I was in it.

[1832] And being there I did not have
to go there, and that was not b to be despised, seeing the state of my
legs and my body in general. [1833] That is all I wished to say, and if I did
not say it at the outw ^{[place = overwritten] s}et it is simply that something was against it.
[1834] But I could not, stay in the forest I mean, I was not free to.

[1835] That
is to say I could have, physically nothing could have been easier, but
I was not purely physical, I lacked something, and I would have had the
feeling, if I had stayed in the forest, of going against an imperative,
at least I had that impression. [1836] But perhaps I was mistaken, perhaps
I would have been better advised to stay in the forest, perhaps I
could have stayed there, without remorse, without the painful impression
of being at fault, almost in a state of sin.

[1837] For I have greatly sinned,
at all times, greatly sinned against my prompters. [1838] And if I cannot
decently be proud of this I see no reason ^{[place = supralinear] either} to be sorry. [1839] But imperatives
are a little different, and I have always been inclined to submit to
them, I don't know why. [1840] For they never led me anywhere, but tore me
from places where, if all was not well, all was no worse than anywhere