with a susceptibility to their peculiar influences which he never
outgrew; so that often in after-times, quite unexpectedly, this
feeling would revive in him with undiminished freshness. That first,
early, boyish ideal of priesthood, the sense of dedication, survived
through all the distractions of the world, and when all thought of
such vocation had finally passed from him, as a ministry, in spirit
at least, towards a sort of hieratic beauty and order in the conduct
of life.

[26] And now what relieved in part this over-tension of soul was the
lad's pleasure in the country and the open air; above all, the ramble
to the coast, over the marsh with its dwarf roses and wild lavender,
and delightful signs, one after another--the abandoned boat, the
ruined flood-gates, the flock of wild birds--that one was approaching
the sea; the long summer-day of idleness among its vague scents and
sounds. And it was characteristic of him that he relished especially
the grave, subdued, northern notes in all that--the charm of the
French or English notes, as we might term them--in the luxuriant
Italian landscape.

NOTES

13. *Ad Vigilias Albas.



CHAPTER III: CHANGE OF AIR

Dilexi decorem domus tuae.