![]() In this house I chanced to find a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. When I was thirteen years of age we all went on a party of pleasure to the baths near Thonon the inclemency of the weather obliged us to remain a day confined to the inn. Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate I desire, therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science. Besides, in drawing the picture of my early days, I also record those events which led, by insensible steps, to my after tale of misery, for when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled my destiny I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys. I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self. And Clerval-could aught ill entrench on the noble spirit of Clerval? Yet he might not have been so perfectly humane, so thoughtful in his generosity, so full of kindness and tenderness amidst his passion for adventurous exploit, had she not unfolded to him the real loveliness of beneficence and made the doing good the end and aim of his soaring ambition. She was the living spirit of love to soften and attract I might have become sullen in my study, rough through the ardour of my nature, but that she was there to subdue me to a semblance of her own gentleness. Her sympathy was ours her smile, her soft voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes, were ever there to bless and animate us. The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home. The busy stage of life, the virtues of heroes, and the actions of men were his theme and his hope and his dream was to become one among those whose names are recorded in story as the gallant and adventurous benefactors of our species. Meanwhile Clerval occupied himself, so to speak, with the moral relations of things.
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