| DIED, X SEPTEMBER MDCCXCVII. |
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The loss of the world in this admirable woman, I leave to other men to
collect; my own I well know, nor can it be improper to describe it. I do
not here allude to the personal pleasures I enjoyed in her
conversation: these increased every day, in proportion as we knew each
other better, and as our mutual confidence increased. They can be
measured only by the treasures of her mind, and the virtues of her
heart. But this is a subject for meditation, not for words. What I
purposed alluding to, was the improvement that I have for ever lost.

We had cultivated our powers (if I may venture to use this sort of
language) in different directions; I chiefly an attempt at logical and
metaphysical distinction, she a taste for the picturesque. One of the
leading passions of my mind has been an anxious desire not to be
deceived. This has led me to view the topics of my reflection on all
sides; and to examine and re-examine without end, the questions that
interest me.

But it was not merely (to judge at least from all the reports of my
memory in this respect) the difference of propensities, that made the
difference in our intellectual habits. I have been stimulated, as long
as I can remember, by an ambition for intellectual distinction; but, as
long as I can remember, I have been discouraged, when I have endeavoured
to cast the sum of my intellectual value, by finding that I did not
possess, in the degree of some other men, an intuitive perception of
intellectual beauty. I have perhaps a strong and lively sense of the