To the
nearest of these he did, in fact, abandon the very unusual wealth
which was his own before the inheritance.
I was not surprised, however, to perceive that he had long made up
his mind on a point which had occasioned so much discussion to his
friends. Nor was I greatly astonished at the nature of his decision.
In regard to individual charities he had satisfied his conscience.
In the possibility of any improvement, properly so called, being
effected by man himself in the general condition of man, he had (I
am sorry to confess it) little faith. Upon the whole, whether
happily or unhappily, he was thrown back, in very great measure,
upon self.
In the widest and noblest sense he was a poet. He comprehended,
moreover, the true character, the august aims, the supreme majesty and
dignity of the poetic sentiment. The fullest, if not the sole proper
satisfaction of this sentiment he instinctively felt to lie in the
creation of novel forms of beauty. Some peculiarities, either in his
early education, or in the nature of his intellect, had tinged with
what is termed materialism all his ethical speculations; and it was
this bias, perhaps, which led him to believe that the most
advantageous at least, if not the sole legitimate field for the poetic
exercise, lies in the creation of novel moods of purely physical
loveliness.
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