already familiar with the
great minds of all ages and lands; and, at this particular period,
was earnestly studying modern philosophical controversies, comparing
the ideas of Kant, Fichte, and Hegel with those of Descartes, Pascal,
and Leibnitz. Despite the difference in their points of view, and the
many other contrasts between them, these two remarkable persons the
thoroughly trained master, in whom the gifts of knowledge, eloquence,
faith, and finesse, were accumulated; and the meditative, earnest,
consecrated young woman of twenty-one had no sooner met than they
felt the parity and harmony of their souls. They formed an exalted
friendship, full of solace and happiness to them both, a friendship
charged with the most important results on the destiny of the woman,
since it led to her conversion from the Greek Church to the Catholic,
and gave a deep religious inspiration and stamp to her entire
subsequent life. Such minds have a thousand lofty topics of common
interest to talk of; and they frequently visited each other,
exchanging thoughts with ever-deepening confidence and esteem. "The
cold countenance of the Count de Maistre," Madame Swetchine writes to
her dearest female friend, "conceals a soul of profound sensibility.
Without praising me, he often says pleasing things to me." At another
time, she humorously writes to the same friend: "The Princess Alexis
and I have been to spend an evening at the house of the Count de
Maistre. From deference to the duties of hospitality, he would not
suffer himself a single moment of sleep. He rose with the palm of
victory out of this terrible struggle of nature and politeness; but
who can tell at what a cost?" She said that great griefs had purified
his ambition, and lent a strange interest to him, elevating and
aggrandizing his character. He set an extreme value on her
friendship; and wrote to her, that he should never spare any pains to
preserve in its integrity what he felt was an infinite honor to him.
He wrote to his friend, the Viscount de Bonald, that he had never
seen so much moral strength, talent, and culture, joined with so much
sweetness of disposition, as in Madame Swetchine. On their
separation, by a residence in different countries, De Maistre gave
her a magnificent portrait of himself, on the frame of which he had
written four verses, adjuring the happy image, in answer to the call
of awaiting friendship, to fly, and take its place where the original
would so glad