e members were permitted to receive visits from their
brothers. It was there that he wooed and won the lovely, saint-like
mother of Alphonse de Lamartine.

The elder brother, as he advanced in life, kept up a truly affecting
intercourse with Mademoiselle de Saint-Huruge. She was beautiful
even in old age, though her beauty was dimmed by an expression
of sadness. They met every evening in Macon, at the house of a
member of the family, and each entertained till death a pure and
constant friendship for the other.

No wonder that when the Revolution decreed the abolition of all
rights of primogeniture, and ordered each father's fortune to be
equally divided among his children, that M. le Chevalier refused
to take advantage of this new arrangement, and left his share to
the elder brother, to whom he owed his domestic happiness. In the
end, all the property of the family came to the poet; the aunts and
uncles--the former of whom had been driven from their convents--having
made him their heir.

Madame de Lamartine had received part of her education from Madame
de Genlis, and had associated in her childhood with Louis Philippe
and Madame Adelaide. But though the influence of Madame de Genlis
was probably not in favor of piety, Madame de Lamartine was sincerely
pious. In her son's early education she seems to have been influenced
by Madame de Genlis' admiration of Rousseau. Alphonse ran barefoot
on the hills, with the little peasant boys for company; but at
home he was swayed by the discipline of love. He published nothing
till he was thirty years of age, though he wrote poetry from early
youth. His study was in the open air, under some grand old oaks on
the edge of a deep ravine. In his hands French poetry became for
the first time musical and descriptive of nature. There was deep
religious feeling, too, in Lamartine's verse, rather vague as to
doctrine, but full of genuine religious sentiment. As a Christian
poet he struck a chord which vibrated in many hearts, for the early
part of our century was characterized by faith and by enthusiasm.
Scepticism was latent, but was soon to assert itself in weary
indifference. "As yet, doubt sorrowed that it doubted, and could
feel the beauty of faith, even when it disbelieved."

From 1820 to 1824 Lamartine was a good deal in Italy; after the
death of an innocent Italian girl, which he has celebrated in touching
verse, he married an English lady, and had one child, his beloved
Julia.