himself, beyond any man I have ever known. To these admirable qualities were added, his genius; his keen insight into human motive-as his theory of morals, which, based on a knowledge of his kind, was perspicuous, subtle, comprehensive, and just; the pure and lofty enthusiasm with which he regarded the improvement of his own species. He had but one defect-which was his leaving his life incomplete by an early death. O that the serener hopes of maturity, the happier contentment of mid-life, had descended on his dear head, to calm the turbulence of youthful impetuosity that he had lived to see his country advance towards freedom, and to enrich the world with his own virtues and genius in their completion of experience and power! When I think that such things might have been, and of my own share in such good and happiness; the pang occasioned by his loss can never pass away-and I gain resignation only by believing that he was spared much suffering, and that he has passed into a sphere of being, better adapted to his inexpressible tenderness, his generous sympathies, and his richly gifted mind. That, free from the physical pain to which he was a martyr, and unshackled by the fleshly bars and imperfect senses which hedged him in on earth, he enjoys beauty, and good, and love there, where those to whom he was united on earth by various ties of affection, sympathy, and admiration, may hope to join him. PUTNEY, December, 1839. "That thou, O my Brother, impart to me truly how it stands with thee in that inner man of thine; what lively images of things past thy memory has painted there; what hopes, what thoughts, affections, knowledge, do now dwell there. For this, and no other object that I can see, was the gift of hearing and speech bestowed on us two." THOMAS CARLYLE. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. ESSAY ON THE LITERATURE, ARTS, AND MANNERS PREFACE TO THE BANQUET OF PLATO . PAGE |