HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND CHARACTER. 491 



Nile to the land of the pyramids. In his silent, self-con- 

 tained, and comparatively solitary existence, this union 

 with one man the " friend of his bosom, this more than a 

 brother " to whom he tendered the worship of his deepest 

 heart, was more to him than troops of friends ; and, in his 

 forced and painful widowhood, dearer and better to him 

 than wife and child. Its intensity and purity were some- 

 thing quite uncommon, and revealed a largeness of soul 

 found only with the few, and in hearts of finer mould. It 

 stirred the very springs of life with more than even the 

 overmastering fervour of early love, and was a permanent 

 holy passion that burnt on his dying pillow and was 

 extinguished only by death. What this affection was to 

 him in his silent heart of hearts was revealed, as by a 

 momentary lightning flash, in the beatific effect it had upon 

 the self-suppressing man at his last meeting with Charles. 

 All this reads like a bit of old romance or a passage from 

 a modern novel, though it was but the literal truth. It 

 recalls, at least, in no mean degree, the world-famous friend- 

 ships between men celebrated in history and poetry. 



And Charles's love for John was as deep and tender, as 

 permanent and full of blessedness. He frequently says, 

 " Naebody would credit the love I had for John." It still 

 wells out at all times and in all forms, and it has become 

 all the more sacred now that it has been hallowed by the 

 grave. " The dear old man ! " as Charles recently wrote to 

 a friend ; " he was the lealest and truest friend I ever had. 

 If I said, ' Rest his soul ! ' would I be sinning ? " 



Is the capacity for such romantic attachments between 

 man and man dying out amongst us, amidst the shallow 

 sentiments, artificial stimulants, and prevalent phiHstinism 



