'I was but about twenty-two years of age when I first began to read them, and I assure you, my friend, that they made a very deep and lasting impression in my mind. By reading them [Plato's On the Immortality of the soul and Plutarch's Morals and Confucio's texts] I was taught to bear the unavoidable evils attending humanity, and to supply all my wants by contracting or restraining my desires.'