Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/232

232 On these occasions, she would make observations and hazard opinions, which obviously demonstrated that the grasp of her intellect would have been productive of equally great results in whatever direction it had been turned, whether by accident or by circumstances. She long recurred with pleasure to that visit; and it was, on that occasion, that I first was enabled to estimate justly, the depth of her affection, as well as the capaciousness of her intellect; the one warm, generous, unalterable—the other capable of any effort, imaginative or substantial. Her powers of conversation, when her mind was not bent on being playful, were great, and her remarks original. Whatever might have been the irritability of L. E. L. in early life, she, at that visit, displayed the sweetest and most amiable temper—mild, gentle, and conciliating; and on no future occasion had I ever cause to alter this opinion of her disposition."

L. E. L. deserved the praise which in one emphatic word she bestowed upon her friend, Miss Jewsbury—she was high-minded. This she was, whatever errors and weaknesses might intervene, in every important relationship of life; this she was alike in the liberality of her conditions with publishers—in the reliance she placed on all good intentions—and in intercourse under any circumstances with friends; this she was under every trial of her affections, amidst all injustice to which she was exposed, and throughout her conduct to her family. What she was during the brief interval between her marriage and her death, her husband has told us—she was animated by the purest sense of duty—a being the most devoted and self-denying—all that is most enduring, courageous, and uncensurable.