to others any benefit or honour derivable from his
researches. On the altar of science he kindled no light, but the
fragrant oil in the lamps of his more pious brethren was largely
borrowed from his stores. From almost every college in Europe came to
his obscure abode letters of acknowledgement or inquiry; and few
foreign cultivators of learning visited this country without seeking
an interview with Aram. He received them with all the modesty and the
courtesy that characterized his demeanour; but it was noticeable that
he never allowed these interruptions to be more than temporary. He
proffered no hospitality, and shrunk back from all offers of friendship;
the interview lasted its hour, and was seldom renewed. Patronage was
not less distasteful to him than sociality. Some occasional visits and
condescensions of the great, he had received with a stern haughtiness,
rather than his wonted and subdued urbanity. The precise amount of his
fortune was not known; his wants were so few, that what would have been
poverty to others might easily have been competence to him; and the only
evidence he manifested of the command of money, was in his extended and
various library.

He had now been about two years settled in his present retreat. Unsocial
as he was, every one in the neighbourhood loved him; even the reserve
of a man so eminent, arising as it was supposed to do from a painful
modesty, had in it something winning; and he had been known to evince on
great occasions, a charity and a courage in the service of others which
removed from the seclusion of his habits the semblance of misanthropy
and of avarice. The peasant drew aside with a kindness mingled with his
respect, as in his homeward walk he encountered the pale and thoughtful
Student, with the folded arms and downeast eyes, which characterised the
abstraction of his mood; and the village maiden, as she curtsied by him,
stole a glance at his handsome but melancholy countenance; and told her
sweetheart she was certain the poor scholar had been crossed in love.

And thus passed the Student's life; perhaps its monotony and dullness
required less compassion than they received; no man can judge of the
happiness of another. As the Moon plays upon the waves, and seems to our
eyes to favour with a peculiar beam one long track amidst the waters,
leaving the rest in comparative obscurity; yet all the while, she is no
niggard in her lustre--for though the rays that meet not our eyes s