haps, as one native indeby her own rself, could s; too consympathy; ; to confess

nd gracious

Tow.

This argely with h and flush tory stress

sjudged or nowledged, eir appreci

in nature mediately I ce, and let ch my own r too dear

from any

aintances, the world,

that any first suras a cha

ghts, all predomise violet

with all least I glorious

quality were clear in every act and word and gesture. (
She was so much Nature's immediate heiress, that she
could do nothing except large-heartedly. As I looked at
her in society and compared her with others, she seemed a
creature born in some earlier and more heroic world,
before failings reputed womanly, affectation, vanity, caprice,
timidity, had any being. Many men, even a judge pene-
trating as Thackeray for instance, have held these quali-
ties (when perhaps subtly modified) graceful and attractive.
But in Désirée I thanked God often that I knew one from
any taint of littleness absolutely free, yet for this very reason
more perfect yet in the charms of the most winning and
gracious girlishness. When through the larger intercourse
of these years my knowledge of her mind was deepened
and I learned to look on Désirée not as in the hour of
thoughtless boyhood, that great change was wrought on
me which Wordsworth by process of the seasons experi-
enced in his communion with Nature. Her presence,
inspiring hitherto a pure delightful passion, disturbed me
now with the joy of elevated thoughts'; with a sense of
a Divinity interfused in that fair child; 'something that
'was before the elements, and owing no homage to the sun'.
Like Dante when his regained Beatrice led him up to the
beatific vision, alone with Darling I was translated into a
loftier heaven, where desire to human aspiration added
the angel wings of hope, and the purple glow of passion
whitened to a more intense and celestial ardency: a region
where every hour was a portion of eternity, trust in her
was implicit faith, and reverence for her pure religion;
where I adored 'Madonna' without idolatry, and loved
God in loving Désirée.

X Nor had He, again, left this crowning grace, this so much his own privilege of nobleness unaccompanied by

gifts scarcely separable from it; high truth, ingenuous fidence: man's love of justice with woman's sympat the injured a frankness innocent of disguise, and a nocence which needed no disguisal. Even if not re and embodied in one dear from childhood, these qua would have rendered her presence delightful; and how many other, what contrasting charms, they united! As, during these years, by accidentally prol residence in London I was with Désirée often in the liar house, whilst the roar of the great city throbbed a and in upon us at every pause, or during the autu visit which had now superseded my foreign wandering days with her in her parents' summer-dwelling in seaside places, if deepening sympathy for one did no a happy law of nature, enlarge the general power of pathy, surely the comparison of what she was almost any others would have rendered me morosely for common society, weary even amongst friends the dearly valued. But, far from this, friends never se so brilliant as when I met them with Désirée. A farewell, I felt as one who has walked with an like Michelangelo Buonarroti when he left his h honoured Vittoria, my thoughts appeared to have 'born within her heart, my words created by her intellig Although smiling at my own folly, Wordsworth's fata 'the dreary intercourse of daily life', (fatal, because many these discouraging words must have gone home the irresistible force of a revelation) often expressed too well my feelings, when the ride ended, or the boat tou land, or the final summons for parting banished me from high and plenteous wit and invention, the affectio all-confidingness, the lavish laughter and lucid s of this 'most replenished sweet work of nature' to a w

genuous con-
sympathy for

, and an in-
not realized
Lese qualities
7; and with
they were
ly prolonged
in the fami-
bbed around
e autumnal

derings, for
ng in sweet

did not, by
ver of sym-
was with
rosely unfit
Is the most
ver seemed

. At the
h angels;
is highly
have been
elligence'.
fatal line
use to so
Lome with

essed only
t touched
from the
ectionate
d smiles
a world

'character come together in the same individual'. course, can claim no such 'analogous power'; and had failed to read Désirée's mind truly it would have more than common blindness. It is possible that fro dear and fatal prerogative of intimacy, from the long fulness of affection, I knew her better than myself only had she, almost since I could hold myself cap memory, laid her thoughts before me with fearle sisterly affection, but from the same unreserve of course, I had seen her tried, seen her triumphant most every ordeal to which (within unromantic indeed, yet inclusive of trials beyond most roman English maiden could be subjected to blame, fl pleasure, wealth, bereavement: danger, bodily and m to perplexing choice, to the necessity for indep action in hours of peril and temptation. I had se disarm censure by frank confession: flatterers, b security of self-forgetfulness: pleasure, by healthy ance and temperate refusal: wealth, by valuing it as others, and indifference the most absolute as re herself: bereavement, by bravery of heart, and pur faith, and devotedness of affection. Désirée conf danger with a smile, and defeated it; her courage ga charm almost ineffably pathetic from union with tend girlish grace, from that perfect unconsciousness when blithe and laughing where her companions (I ha it) trembled for her in every limb, made her call her coward.

With this exquisite sincerity Désirée was in fact to all things: at home with high or low, dull or bri friend or stranger, eager alike for mirth and study: for philosophy and for household ways, for servic Aristotle observes of the large-hearted, or for comm

vidual'. I, of
'; and yet if I
uld have been a
that from that
he long watch-
myself. Not
self capable of
a fearless and
erve of inter-
mphant in al-
mantic limits

romance) an
ame, flattery,
~ and mental;
independent
had seen her
rers, by the
althy accept-
g it as aid to
as regarded
nd purity of
e confronted
age gained a
h tender and
sness which,
(I have felt

all herself a

n fact equal
or brilliant,
tudy: good

service', as
command',

for wildness and for method: so prettily engaging and simple-souled with children that one wished oneself a child, or again so bright and so weighty in judgment that she seemed greatest always with the great, and met on even terms the wittiest and the wisest never too grave for gaiety, and her smiles at no time far from seriousness. And this great gift was hers also, that by individual right she preserved through every phase a unity unimpaired, not only with herself as at the moment she might be, but with herself as I remember her through twenty years: the glory of her infancy undiminished, and the records of the sweet face at one with its promises :— never childish, yet never not a child, the broad seal of heaven on her brows, and God always with his Darling.

XII What I have here noted together, using many words and saying little, was in fact of gradual discovery: felt only as a source of blind organic sympathy during childhood; hardly perhaps recognized in fulness before my own portion was in outer darkness. But when enjoying almost daily the privilege πλάσιον ὧδε φωνείσας ὑπακούειν καὶ γελαίσας ιμερόεν, I became aware of her worthihood, henceforth I stood towards Désirée in a double relation of subtle sweetness; a union of Fear with Triumph. When in any game or society she chose me her companion, accepted my gifts, promised some treasure of her own hands' work, and when seemingly forgotten, gave it; when she bade me share her own thoughtful plans for good, aided me with counsel, or, dearer still, in doubt or anxiety, asked mine; in all from her pure truthfulness, with no further looking intention, or any thought beyond the favour of the moment, I triumphed in the force of Faith; I was as one having nothing, and yet possessing all . things. If they appeared symbolical of the larger issues of