t object of my ambition to rival the
merits of my father, and render myself worthy of the friendship of Adrian.
But curiosity soon awoke, and an earnest love of knowledge, which caused me
to pass days and nights in reading and study. I was already well acquainted
with what I may term the panorama of nature, the change of seasons, and the
various appearances of heaven and earth. But I was at once startled and
enchanted by my sudden extension of vision, when the curtain, which had
been drawn before the intellectual world, was withdrawn, and I saw the
universe, not only as it presented itself to my outward senses, but as it
had appeared to the wisest among men. Poetry and its creations, philosophy
and its researches and classifications, alike awoke the sleeping ideas in
my mind, and gave me new ones.

I felt as the sailor, who from the topmast first discovered the shore of
America; and like him I hastened to tell my companions of my discoveries in
unknown regions. But I was unable to excite in any breast the same craving
appetite for knowledge that existed in mine. Even Perdita was unable to
understand me. I had lived in what is generally called the world of
reality, and it was awakening to a new country to find that there was a
deeper meaning in all I saw, besides that which my eyes conveyed to me. The
visionary Perdita beheld in all this only a new gloss upon an old reading,
and her own was sufficiently inexhaustible to content her. She listened to
me as she had done to the narration of my adventures, and sometimes took an
interest in this species of information; but she did not, as I did, look on
it as an integral part of her being, which having obtained, I could no more
put off than the universal sense of touch.

We both agreed in loving Adrian: although she not having yet escaped from
childhood could not appreciate as I did the extent of his merits, or feel
the same sympathy in his pursuits and opinions. I was for ever with him.
There was a sensibility and sweetness in his disposition, that gave a
tender and unearthly tone to our converse. Then he was gay as a lark
carolling from its skiey tower, soaring in thought as an eagle, innocent as
the mild-eyed dove. He could dispel the seriousness of Perdita, and take
the sting from the torturing activity of my nature. I looked back to my
restless desires and painful struggles with my fellow beings as to a
troubled dream, and felt myself as much changed as if I had transmigra