One of the first signs of the beginnings of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one will only in time come to hate.
Bio: Isaac Penington was one of the early members of the Religious Society of Friends in England. He wrote about the Quaker movement and was an influential promoter and defender of it.
