The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 1, July 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 1, July 1837
Various
Periodicals
"I need not, as I cannot, describe our meeting. It was the
meeting of brothers--yet, of strangers, and a confusion of
wonder, curiosity, vague expectation, and doubt, possessed
the soul of each. I trust and believe, that notwithstanding
the different political bias which sways each, the ancient
ties which bound us together as brothers will again unite us.
The countenance of Calpurnius, though dark and almost stern
in its general expression, yet unbends and relaxes frequently
and suddenly, in a manner that impresses you forcibly with
an inward humanity as the presiding though often concealed
quality of his nature. I can trace faintly the features which
have been stamped upon my memory--and the form too--chiefly
by the recollected scene of that bright morning, when he with
our elder brother and venerable parent, gave us each a last
embrace, as they started for the tents of Valerian. A warmer
climate has deepened the olive of his complexion, and at the
same time added brilliancy to an eye, by nature soft as a
woman's. His Persian dress increases greatly the effect of his
rare beauty, yet I heartily wish it off, as it contributes
more, I believe, than the lapse of so many years, to separate
us. He will not seem and feel as a brother, till he returns to
the costume of his native land. How great this power of mere
dress is upon our affections and our regard, you can yourself
bear witness, when those who parted from you to travel in
foreign countries have returned metamorphosed into Greeks,
Egyptians, or Persians, according to the fashions that have
struck their foolish fancies. The assumed and foreign air:
chills the untravelled heart as it greets them. They are no
longer the same. However the reason may strive to overcome
what seems the mere prejudice of a wayward nature, we strive
in vain: nature will be uppermost--and many, many times have I
seen the former friendships break away and perish.
"I could not be alive to the general justness of the comparison
instituted by Isaac, between Calpurnius and Julia. There are
many points of resemblance. The very same likeness in kind
that we so often observe between a brother and sister--such as
we have often remarked in your nephew and niece, Drusus and
Lavinia--whose dress being changed, and they are changed.
"No sooner had I greeted and welcomed my brother, than I turned
to Isaac and saluted him, I am persuaded with scarcely less
cordiality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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