i62 CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS
Nevertheless, with a temperament so introspective, brooding, and sensitive, it is doubtful whether even re- ligious contemplation would have saved Stephens from melancholy and morbidness. It might have lifted him above the pessimism and misanthropy of Leopardi only to land him in the deeper spiritual wretchedness of Amiel. Contemplation, even divine, is not always suffi- cient to save such a temperament from ruining itself.
A better, surer remedy, at least a needed balance- wheel, is action, constant contact with the busy, outward, stupid hurry of the world. Stephens knew this and had the courage and the energy to force himself out of him- self. He may have possessed " a charm against loneli- ness," as his brother writes ; but he knew that in loneli- ness lay his danger and he kept as much as possible in the bright current of turbulent humanity, even when all his inclinations bade him fly from it. " It seems to me that but for an effort that no other mortal upon earth would make, I should sink into profound indifference to all things connected with men and their affairs. But with that effort that I daily exert, to the persons about me I appear, I have no doubt, to be one of the most cheerful and happy men upon earth." ^^
As a result of this he had people near him always. His hospitality was notorious even in the hospitable South. Though he was far from wealthy, his mansion, Liberty Hall, was open to all men at all times. Rich and poor, high and low, ignorant and learned, gathered there,
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