Happily we all shoot at the moon with ineffectual arrows; our hopes are set on inaccessible El Dorado; we come to an end of nothing here below. Interests are only plucked up to sow themselves again, like mustard. You would think, when the child was born, there would be an end to trouble; and yet it is only the beginning of fresh anxieties; and when you have seen it through its teething and its education, and at last its marriage, alas! it is only to have new fears, new quivering sensibilities, with every day; and the health of your children's children grows as touching a concern as that of your own.

参考译文:
我们欣然把箭射向月亮，却毫无结果；我们把希望建立在遥不可及的黄金国上，最终却一无所获。就像芥菜一样，兴趣的收割，只是为了下次的播种。你可能会认为等孩子出生了，一切麻烦也就结束了；然而这只是新麻烦的开始：你看着他长出牙齿，看着他接受教育，直到最后看着他结婚。天哪！每一天都会有新的担忧，新的感情冲击。儿孙的健康像你的健康一样牵动着你的心。