A Mother's Advice to Her Daughter

This is a mother's advice to her daughter... spoken to her as she breathed her last.

— I have suffered much, my daughter, and I do not want you to suffer as I suffered. I was the victim of a mistaken idea. I believed that love was the breath of life that I inhaled — nay, the aim of life and its hidden secret. But I found in love only a frail tree over which the seasons of the year pass, changing its state... I found in it a tree that withers in autumn, flourishes in spring, shrinks in winter, and rustles its dry leaves in summer!