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Revelations,' we see in the solemn and stately gloom which invests one,
and in the subtle metaphysical analysis of both, indications of the
idiosyncrasies of what was most remarkable and peculiar in the author's
intellectual nature. But we see here only the better phases of his
nature, only the symbols of his juster action, for his harsh experience
had deprived him of all faith in man or woman. He had made up his mind
upon the numberless complexities of the social world, and the whole
system with him was an imposture. This conviction gave a direction to
his shrewd and naturally unamiable character. Still, though he regarded
society as composed altogether of villains, the sharpness of his
intellect was not of that kind which enabled him to cope with villany,
while it continually caused him by overshots to fail of the success of
honesty. He was in many respects like Francis Vivian in Bulwer's novel
of 'The Caxtons.' Passion, in him, comprehended--many of the worst
emotions which militate against human happiness. You could not
contradict him, but you raised quick choler; you could not speak of
wealth, but his cheek paled with gnawing envy. The astonishing natural
advantages of this poor boy--his beauty, his readiness, the daring
spirit that breathed around him like a fiery atmosphere--had raised his
constitutional self-confidence into an arrogance that turned his
very claims to admiration into prejudices against him. Irascible,
envious--bad enough, but not the worst, for these salient angles were
all varnished over with a cold, repellant cynicism, his passions vented
themselves in sneers. There seemed to him no moral susceptibility; and,
what was more remarkable in a proud nature, little or nothing of the
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