aracter and previous life my ignorance
was absolute: but the singular charm of his language and deportment
was even enhanced by the obscurity which enveloped him, and I yielded
unresistingly to the spell in which he had bound me.

I had never yet beheld the man whose tastes and pursuits assimilated
so entirely with my own. He was, however, incomparably my superior in
natural and acquired advantages. He possessed more variety, more
fulness and accuracy of knowledge, and he displayed a vigour and
opulence of language which often rose with the occasion into the lofty
and impassioned eloquence of poetry. His soul was more expansive and
liberal than mine, but at the same time more uncontrolled, rash, and
intemperate. He had doubtless those defects, which, in Italy, often
accompany an ardent and impetuous character; and, under strong
provocation, he would not hesitate probably to inflict an unsparing
and formidable revenge: but surely a generous heart and a commanding
intellect will redeem many failings, and even palliate those desperate
alternatives to which men of noble nature and of pure intention are
sometimes impelled by the defects of our social institutions.

CHAPTER II.

At an early hour on the following morning I heard the emphatic tread
of the young painter in the corridor. In a moment he entered my
apartment, and his appearance renewed in some degree my emotion. "Our
feelings had too much of lyric riot in them last night," said he,
smiling; "such excitement is exhausting, and cannot be long sustained
without approximation to fever. I shall never learn moderation in my
attachments, but I am resolved to lower the expression of them to a
more temperate standard; and with this object I will, if agreeable to
you, endeavour to create occupation for our intellects as well as our
feelings."

He then inquired if I had practised drawing, and to what extent. I
told him that I had been in the habit of sketching the fine lake and
mountain scenery of Lombardy; but that my ambition was to draw the
human figure from living models, which I regarded as the only avenue
by which any degree of excellence could be attained.

"If you will accept of my assistance," he replied, "we can immediately
commence a course of elementary studies of the human figure; after
which," added he sportively, "you may employ me as a model. In return
for my instructions in painting, you must promote my ardent wish to
attain a competent knowledge of m