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becoming the calculating, determined character, which alone forms a
successful hero. He was obstinate, but not firm; benevolent in his first
movements; harsh and reckless when provoked. Above all, he was remorseless
and unyielding in the pursuit of any object of desire, however lawless.
Love of pleasure, and the softer sensibilities of our nature, made a
prominent part of his character, conquering the conqueror; holding him in
at the moment of acquisition; sweeping away ambition's web; making him
forget the toil of weeks, for the sake of one moment's indulgence of the
new and actual object of his wishes. Obeying these impulses, he had become
the husband of Perdita: egged on by them, he found himself the lover of
Evadne. He had now lost both. He had neither the ennobling
self-gratulation, which constancy inspires, to console him, nor the
voluptuous sense of abandonment to a forbidden, but intoxicating passion.
His heart was exhausted by the recent events; his enjoyment of life was
destroyed by the resentment of Perdita, and the flight of Evadne; and the
inflexibility of the former, set the last seal upon the annihilation of his
hopes. As long as their disunion remained a secret, he cherished an
expectation of re-awakening past tenderness in her bosom; now that we were
all made acquainted with these occurrences, and that Perdita, by declaring
her resolves to others, in a manner pledged herself to their
accomplishment, he gave up the idea of re-union as futile, and sought only,
since he was unable to influence her to change, to reconcile himself to the
present state of things. He made a vow against love and its train of
struggles, disappointment and remorse, and sought in mere sensual
enjoyment, a remedy for the injurious inroads of passion.
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