Chapter 28
One of the strangest things in all the strange course of our human life is perhaps the suddenness of certain unlooked-for events, which, in a day or even an hour, may work utter devastation where there has been more or less peace, and hopeless ruin where there has been comparative safety. Like the shock of an earthquake, the clamorous incidents thunder in on the regular routine of ordinary life, crumbling down our hopes, breaking our hearts, and scattering our pleasures into the dust and ashes of despair. And this kind of destructive trouble generally happens in the midst of apparent prosperity without the least warning, and with all the abrupt fierceness of a desertstorm. It is constantly made manifest to us in the unexpected and almost instantaneous downfall of certain member
