IT happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon a
London winter, there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of
the ton a nobleman, more remarkable for his singularities, than his
rank. He gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not
participate therein. Apparently, the light laughter of the fair only
attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it, and throw
fear into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt
this sensation of awe, could not explain whence it arose: some
attributed it to the dead grey eye, which, fixing upon the object's face,
did not seem to penetrate, and at one glance to pierce through to the
inward workings of the heart; but fell upon the cheek with a leaden
ray that weighed upon the skin it could not pass. His peculiarities
caused him to be invited to every house; all wished to see him, and
those who had been accustomed to violent excitement, and now felt
the weight of ennui, were pleased at having something in their
presence capable of engaging their attention. In spite of the deadly
hue of his face, which never gained a warmer tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion, though its
form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after
notoriety attempted to win his attentions, and gain, at least, some
marks of what they might term affection: Lady Mercer, who had been
the mockery of every monster shewn in drawing-rooms since her
marriage, threw herself in his way, and did all but put on the dress of
a mountebank,44 to attract his notice:--though in vain:-- when she
stood before him, though his eyes were apparently fixed upon her's,
still it seemed as if they were unperceived; --even her unappalled
impudence was baffled, and she left, the field. But though the
common adultress could not influence even the guidance of his eyes,
it was not that the female sex was indifferent to him: yet such was the
apparent caution with which he spoke to the virtuous wife and
innocent daughter, that few knew he ever addressed himself to
females. He had, however, the reputation of a winning tongue; and
whether it was that it even overcame the dread of his singular
character, or that they were moved by his apparent hatred of vice, he
was as often among those females who form the boast of their sex
from their domestic virtues, as among those who sully it by their
vices.
About the same time, there came to London a young gentleman of
the name of Aubrey: he was an orphan left with an only sister in the
possession of great wealth, by parents who died while he was yet in
childhood. Left also to himself by guardians, who thought it their
duty merely to take care of his fortune, while they relinquished the
more important charge of his mind to the care of mercenary
subalterns,45 he cultivated more his imagination than his judgment.
He had, hence, that high romantic feeling of honour and candour,
which daily ruins so many milliners'46 apprentices. He believed all to
sympathise with virtue, and thought that vice was thrown in by
Providence merely for the picturesque effect of the scene, as we see in
romances: he thought that the misery of a cottage merely consisted in
the vesting of clothes, which were as warm, but which were better
adapted to the painter's eye by their irregular folds and various
coloured patches. He thought, in fine, that the dreams of poets were
the realities of life. He was handsome, frank, and rich: for these
reasons, upon his entering into the gay circles, many mothers
surrounded him, striving which should describe with least truth their languishing or romping
favourites: the daughters at the same time, by their brightening
countenances when he approached, and by their sparkling eyes, when
he opened his lips, soon led him into false notions of his talents and
his merit. Attached as lie was to the romance of his solitary hours, he
was startled at finding, that, except in the tallow47 and wax candles
that flickered, not from the presence of a ghost, but from want of
snuffing, there was no foundation in real life for any of that congeries
of pleasing pictures and descriptions contained in those volumes,
from which he had formed his study. Finding, however, some
compensation in his gratified vanity, he was about to relinquish his
dreams, when the extraordinary being we have above described,
crossed him in his career.
He watched him; and the very impossibility of forming an idea of the
character of a man entirely absorbed in himself, who gave few other
signs of his observation of external objects, than the tacit assent to
their existence, implied by the avoidance of their contact: allowing his
imagination to picture every thing that flattered its propensity to
extravagant ideas, he soon formed this object into the hero of a
romance48, and determined to observe the offspring of his fancy,
rather than the person before him. He became acquainted with him,
paid him attentions, and so far advanced upon his notice, that his
presence was always recognised. He gradually learnt that Lord
Ruthven's affairs were embarrassed, and soon found, from the notes
of preparation in ---- Street, that he was about to travel. Desirous of
gaining some information respecting this singular character, who, till
now, had only whetted his curiosity, he hinted to his guardians, that
it was time for him to perform the tour, which for many generations
has been thought necessary to enable the young to take some rapid
steps in the career of vice towards putting themselves upon an
equality with the aged, and not allowing them to appear as if fallen
from the skies, whenever scandalous intrigues are mentioned as the
subjects of pleasantry or of praise, according to the degree of skill
shewn 49 in carrying them on. They consented: and Aubrey
immediately mentioning his intentions to Lord Ruthven,
breathe freely in the neighbourhood of this lake; the ground upon
which I read has been subdued from the earliest ages; the principal
objects which immediately strike my eye, bring to my recollection
scenes, in which man acted the hero and was the chief object of
interest. Not to look back to earlier times of battles and sieges, here is
the bust of Rousseau1
--here is a house with an inscription denoting
that the Genevan philosopher first drew breath under its roof. A little
out of the town is Ferney,2
the residence of Voltaire;3
where that
wonderful, though certainly in many respects contemptible,
character, received, like the hermits of old, the visits of pilgrims, not
only from his own nation, but from the farthest boundaries of
Europe. Here too is Bonnet’s4
abode, and, a few steps beyond, the
house of that astonishing woman Madame de Stael5
: perhaps the
first of her sex, who has really proved its often claimed equality with,
the nobler man. We have before had women who have written
interesting-novels and poems, in which their tact at observing
drawing-room characters has availed them; but never since the days of
Heloise 6 have those faculties which arc peculiar to man, been
developed as the possible inheritance of woman. Though even here, as
in the case of Heloise, our sex have not been backward in alledging
the existence of an Abeilard7
in the person of M. Schlegel as the
inspirer of her works. But to proceed: upon the same side of the lake,
Gibbon, Bonnivard, Bradshaw8
, and others mark, as it were, the
stages for our progress; whilst upon the other side there is one house,
1 An 18th Century Enlightenment philosopher who is believed to have said,
“If ever there was in the world a warranted and proven history it is that of
vampires.”
2 A part of Geneva that lies between the Jura mountains and the Swiss
border.
3 Another 18th Century Enlightenment philosopher from France.
4 A Swiss naturalist and philosopher who was born in Geneva. Bonnet
believed all knowledge stemmed from sensations.
5 Born Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Madame de Staël was a very
influential writer both in literary criticism and in politics.
6 A French abbess, writer, and scholar who lived in the twelfth century and
was best known for her excellent reading and writing skills in all the
classical languages.
7 In reference to the tragic love affair between Heloise and Abelard in
which Heloise’s uncle tears the two lovers apart.