Pagina 651 di 1118

The person of Frederick was indeed fitted to inspire respect and

love. His figure was naturally majestic and noble, and was

neither bent nor wasted by years; his eye was grave and piercing,

his brow serene and pensive; his countenance still shone with the

animation of youth, notwithstanding the paleness of his face, and

the visible traces it presented of abstinence, meditation, and

laborious exertion. All his features indicated that he had once

been more than ordinarily handsome; the habit of solemn and

benevolent thought, the internal peace of a long life, love for

mankind, and the influence of an ineffable hope, had substituted

for the beauty of youth, the more dignified and superior beauty

of an old age, to which the magnificent simplicity of the purple

added an imposing and inexpressible charm.