Strona 19 z 483

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.

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. 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.