and how fully realized were the
expectations that I had formed!

"Here, said I, is a being, after whom sages may model their transcendent
intelligence, and painters, their ideal beauty. Here is exemplified,
that union between intellect and form, which has hitherto existed only
in the conceptions of the poet. I have watched your eyes; my attention
has hung upon your lips. I have questioned whether the enchantments of
your voice were more conspicuous in the intricacies of melody, or the
emphasis of rhetoric. I have marked the transitions of your discourse,
the felicities of your expression, your refined argumentation, and
glowing imagery; and been forced to acknowledge, that all delights were
meagre and contemptible, compared with those connected with the
audience and sight of you. I have contemplated your principles, and been
astonished at the solidity of their foundation, and the perfection of
their structure. I have traced you to your home. I have viewed you in
relation to your servants, to your family, to your neighbours, and to
the world. I have seen by what skilful arrangements you facilitate
the performance of the most arduous and complicated duties; what daily
accessions of strength your judicious discipline bestowed upon
your memory; what correctness and abundance of knowledge was daily
experienced by your unwearied application to books, and to writing.
If she that possesses so much in the bloom of youth, will go on
accumulating her stores, what, said I, is the picture she will display
at a mature age?

"You know not the accuracy of my observation. I was desirous that others
should profit by an example so rare. I therefore noted down, in writing,
every particular of your conduct. I was anxious to benefit by an
opportunity so seldom afforded us. I laboured not to omit the slightest
shade, or the most petty line in your portrait. Here there was no other
task incumbent on me but to copy; there was no need to exaggerate or
overlook, in order to produce a more unexceptionable pattern. Here was
a combination of harmonies and graces, incapable of diminution or
accession without injury to its completeness.

"I found no end and no bounds to my task. No display of a scene like
this could be chargeable with redundancy or superfluity. Even the colour
of a shoe, the knot of a ribband, or your attitude in plucking a
rose, were of moment to be recorded. Even the arrangements of your
breakfast-table and your toilet have been