I shall never be able to realise the too sanguine hopes of my friends, for at twenty-eight I am a thoroughly old man - mentally and bodily. Far more so, indeed, than I am willing to express.

More from Branwell Bronte

• Accept loss forever
• A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Essays, "Character," 1844
• A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.
• Advice is like snow; the softer it falls the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.