Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/14

around him, a philosophist. This is evident in his first works, which he always held in slight estimation on that account. He afterward courageously renounced many of his early opinions, others were changed, and he had need to be ashamed of none, for his faith became firm, and was boldly defended. When he was only nineteen years of age, Quintana, surprised at his great talents, proposed to him to accept the professorship he was about to vacate. When any encomium was bestowed upon the youth, Quintana would always say, "Donoso is a diamond;" and he fully justified this eulogium. The result more than satisfied the general expectation, and it was admitted by all that he might accomplish still greater things in an enlarged sphere of action. Among those who always attended his lectures was a young girl. Her black eyes were continually fixed upon the animated countenance of the orator; and she regarded his every movement with the most intense admiration. Their hearts were touched, and they were married. Scarcely had Donoso enjoyed "the only true felicity of life," and it seemed as if his happiness was assured, when the two beings who had reconsecrated to him their lives, a beloved wife and infant daughter, were both laid in the tomb; as if he was only permitted this affection in order to make an offering of it to God.

He did not endure this first misfortune with resignation, and it was therefore terrible. Educated in an age which, if not altogether infidel, was at least so in ideas, he had imbibed that indifference, which is the greatest scourge of modern times. Although he was a philosophist from his earliest years, yet he was never irreligious; but divine love and a pious fervor were wanting; and religion is not an effect of human reason, but must come from the heart, which receives it through faith. Custom alone, not conscience, held him in union with the Church, and caused him to practice its duties, from which he was soon to experience such great blessings. Notwithstanding this religious apathy, he always