y own baseness, and that of all mankind,
of the world, and everything in it. Eleazar! he and you! If we are to
make use of such words, my friend, I love you; all the fibres of my
heart twine fast around you; awake and in my dreams you stand before
me: your being miserable might reduce me to despair. And this
raw-boned, loathsome Eleazar! If I am to give a name to this folly of
my nature, I hate him; he is quite nauseous to me, whenever he stands
before my eye or before my imagination: the bile which has tainted his
eyes and face, his squinting glances, the twitches of his nose when he
is speaking, while his long teeth stare out as if he were grinning,
his shrugging up his shoulders at every word, whereby his odious
snuff-coloured coat is every moment dragged upward and lays bare the
skinny bones of his wrists, all this, his way of drawing in his
breath, his hissing voice, is so revolting to my bodily senses, and
always excites my wrath so strongly, so painfully, that no other
created being ever gave me the same torment; and for this very reason,
because there is so much I have to make amends to him for, because
heaven and nature have so utterly neglected him, must he become my
chief heir, my son. Besides he has long known of it, and is pleased
with the prospect of this union."

"I only half understand you," answered Edward: "you are fighting
against your own feelings, you are wilfully putting yourself on the
rack. I am not arguing now against your promise, since you have
already given it to that man: but why do you cling to this image of
life, that harasses and tortures you? Why not open your mind to those
joyous feelings, to those sunny thoughts, which lie just as near, nay
nearer?"

"As you please," said the old man,--"for you, but not for me. Day
after day has taught me that very few men really live. Most of them
are in a state of ceaseless dissipation: nay what they call thought
and reflexion is itself the very same thing, a mere attempt to raise a
mist around the nature and inborn feelings of their hearts, and to
keep themselves from discerning them. And arrogance starts up, the
consciousness of their dignity and strength goads and spurs them on,
till they rave with ungovernable pride. This too I have known in my
youth, and outlived it. Then I loved, as I deemed. How clear and
rosy-hued, how bright and smiling the world lay before me! My heart
too was as it were bathed in pure ether, blue, boundless, with sweet