It was the best of times; it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light; it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. We had everything before us; we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven; we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present one in which the noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison.