This life is so rich in visions and imaginings, that they finally obscure the real world altogether, and receive in passing through this medium a reflected colouring in addition to their own. "I always see the antithesis of things; the sight of a child inevitably suggests to my mind the thought of old age; the sight of a cradle, the idea of the grave. When I look at my wife, I think of myself as her skeleton. That is why scenes of happiness sadden me, while sad things leave me indifferent. I weep so much internally in my own soul, that my tears cannot flow outwardly as well; things that I read of in a book agitate me much more than any actually existing sorrows." Here we encounter a distinguishing trait of the majority of natures that are gifted with strong artistic temperaments. "The more oppressed I feel, the more melancholy and highly strung and prone to tears and to give myself over to a sense of imaginary suffering, so much the more do my real feelings remain dry and hard and dead within my heart; they are crystallized within it." This is the mental attitude described by Pushkin: "In vain did I appeal to the emotions within me, With unmoved ears I heard the breath of Death, And all unmoved I gazed on her. So that is what I loved with flaming soul, With such intensity of passion, With so great anguish and agony of love, With such torment and unreason! Where is now pain and where is love? Alas, for the poor credulous shade in my soul! For the sweet memory of days for ever passed I can now find neither tears nor reproaches."