"
It was in devoting his enormous wealth to the embodiment of a vision
such as this- in the free exercise in the open air ensured by the
personal superintendence of his plans- in the unceasing object which
these plans afforded- in the high spirituality of the object- in the
contempt of ambition which it enabled him truly to feel- in the
perennial springs with which it gratified, without possibility of
satiating, that one master passion of his soul, the thirst for beauty,
above all, it was in the sympathy of a woman, not unwomanly, whose
loveliness and love enveloped his existence in the purple atmosphere
of Paradise, that Ellison thought to find, and found, exemption from
the ordinary cares of humanity, with a far greater amount of
positive happiness than ever glowed in the rapt day-dreams of De
Stael.
I despair of conveying to the reader any distinct conception of
the marvels which my friend did actually accomplish. I wish to
describe, but am disheartened by the difficulty of description, and
hesitate between detail and generality. Perhaps the better course will
be to unite the two in their extremes.
Mr. Ellison's first step regarded, of course, the choice of a
locality, and scarcely had he commenced thinking on this point, when
the luxuriant nature of the Pacific Islands arrested his attention.
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