Chapter 1: The Period

         
          It will be the best of times,
          it will be the worst of times,
          it will be the age of giving,
          it will be the age of keeping,
          it will be the epoch of learning,
          it will be the epoch of forgetting,
          it will be the season of change,
          it will be the season of stagnation,
          it will be the spring of hope,
          it will be the winter of despair,

          I have everything before me, I have nothing before me, I will fly in the sky, I will swim in the deep - in short, the period is the present, that I, the only judge, insist on its being received, for good or for evil, in the greatest desire to truly live.