'
In this sentence lay the index to the character of the man. His
existence was one vast sacrifice, one scene of intrepid self-immolation.
Although, in the brief hints at the events of his life which he had
communicated to his friend, he had exaggerated the extent of his errors,
he had by no means done justice to the fervour of his penitence--a
penitence which outstripped the usual boundaries of repentance, and only
began in despair to terminate in fanaticism. His desertion of his
father's house (into the motives of which it is not our present
intention to enter), and his long subsequent existence of violence and
excess, indisposed his naturally strong passions to submit to the
slightest restraint. In obedience to their first impulses, he
contracted, at a mature age, a marriage with a woman thoroughly unworthy
of the ardent admiration that she had inspired. When he found himself
deceived and dishonoured by her, the shock of such an affliction
thrilled through his whole being--crushed all his energies--struck him
prostrate, heart and mind, at one blow.
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