Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/17

studies of Queen Isabella, whose majority had recently been declared. He was, moreover, proffered a place in the ministry, which he refused. He was a man whose convictions were too profound to permit him to alter them when placed in power; and men who are incapable of change cannot long exercise an influence over a mutable society.

At this juncture, Louis Philippe made him Grand-officer of the Legion of Honor, and the States of Castile conferred upon him a title, by erecting his estate of Valdegamas into a marquisate. He afterward entered upon the diplomatic career, having been nominated minister plenipotentiary of Spain near Berlin, where he was surprised by the revolution of February, or, to speak more correctly, by the great European catastrophe of 1848.

Donoso was now on the verge of that uncertain epoch of human life, having reached the midway of the term of years usually granted by God to man, when the two periods of one's existence seem to be equally balanced, and it is difficult to say whether the culminating point is still to be reached or the descent has already commenced. Solemn hour, when the light of day begins to fade, but the setting sun still preserves its radiant splendor-hour, sacred to the past and the future, when the imagination is no longer enkindled, but the poetry of the heart remains. If our faith has, until then, been rather an act of the understanding than of the affections, and we meet with some disaster in such an hour, we find ourselves suddenly changed, a heavenly unction penetrates our souls, and we approach the end of life with an increase of strength and fervor.

At thirty, Chateaubriand wept and believed; in the death of two beloved objects he gained life, and from their graves ascended those pious desires, through which he acquired the gift of faith. Donoso loved at forty, and was converted. His brother died. He never alluded to this loss without weeping, and writing about him to an intimate friend, Mr. Rio, he said that he ought to ask