SXXtiii • MEMOIR. 



me always afterward, the symbols ,of his character. A 

 cloud -wrapped his inner life: Motives, and the deeper feel- 

 ^ in'gs, were lost to view in thkt obscumty. , It seemed that 

 within this cloud' there might be, desperate struggles, like 

 the battle. of the Huns and Eomans, invisible in the air, but 

 of which no token escaped intothe experience of his friends. 

 He CQnfrontejd circumstances with the same composed and 

 Indortiitable resolution' and it 'was not possible to tell wh0ther 

 he were entertaining angels, or wrestling with demons, in 

 the secret chambers of his soul. There- are passages in, 

 letters to Ids wife which indicate, and they only' by impli- 

 cation, that his character was tried and tempered 'by strug- 

 gles. Those most intimate letters, however, are fall of 

 expressions ,of religious faith and dependence, sometimes 

 uttered with a kind of cHnging , earnestness, as if he well 

 knew the value of the peace that passes understanding? 

 But nothing of all this appeared in his friendly inter- 

 course with men. He had, however, very, few intimate 

 friends among men. His warmest and most confiding 

 friendships were with women. In his intercourse with 

 them,' he revealed a rare and beautiful sense of the uses 

 of friendship, which -united Meh very closely to them. To 

 men he was much more inaccessible. It cannot be. denied 

 thatfthe feeling of mystery in. his character affected the im- i 

 pression he made upon various persons. -It might be called 

 as- before, "haughtiness," "reserve," "coldness,"" or 

 "hardness," but it. was quite the same thitig. It; re- 

 pelled many who were otherwise -most strongly attracted 

 to hiaj by bis books. In others, stUl, it begot a slight dis- 

 trust, and suspicion of self-seeking upon his part. ■ ' 



I ren^eraber 91 .little circumstance, the impression of^, 

 which is strictly in accordance with my feeling of this sin- 

 gular mystery in his character. We had one day been 



