o read his soul,
into which so little of the light of the living ever penetrated....

"With such a character, it seems strange he should have had friends: yet
he had them, not only the friends of his mother who esteemed him as the
noble son of a noble mother, but friends of his own age, who loved him
ardently, and who were loved by him in return.... He had formed a high
ideal of friendship; in the age of early illusions he loved to think
that his friends and himself, brought up nearly in the same manner,
with the same principles, would never change their opinions, and that no
formal disagreement could ever occur between them....

"He was externally so affectionate, his education had been so finished,
and he possessed so much natural grace, that he had the gift of pleasing
even where he was not personally known. His exceeding loveliness was
immediately prepossessing, the delicacy of his constitution rendered him
interesting in the eyes of women, the full yet graceful cultivation of
his mind, the sweet and captivating originality of his conversation,
gained for him the attention of the most enlightened men. Men less
highly cultivated, liked him for his exquisite courtesy of manner. They
were so much the more pleased with this, because, in their simplicity,
they never imagined it was the graceful fulfillment of a duty into which
no real sympathy entered.

"Could such people have divined the secrets of his mystic character,
they would have said he was more amiable than loving--and with respect
to them, this would have been true. But how could they have known
that his real, though rare attachments, were so vivid, so profound, so
undying?...

"Association with him in the details of life was delightful. He filled
all the forms of friendship with an unaccustomed charm, and when he
expressed his gratitude, it was with that deep emotion which recompenses
kindness with usury. He willingly imagined that he felt himself every
day dying; he accepted the cares of a friend, hiding from him, lest
it should render him unhappy, the little time he expected to profit by
them. He possessed great physical courage, and if he did not accept with
the heroic recklessness of youth the idea of approaching death, at least
he cherished the expectation of it with a kind of bitter pleasure."...

The attachment which he felt for a young lady, who never ceased to feel
a reverential homage for him, may be traced back to his early youth.
The tempest w