Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/35

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BIOGRAPHY OF KRASINSKI.
29

gave him pleasure to converse upon the historical and philosophical questions of the day. Then would he open a mine of intellectual wealth, of original and striking views, of profound ideas, which, under more favorable circumstances, would have made him at least the equal of the statesmen of his time.

Devout in the very depths of his soul, he shrank from no sacrifice for his family or friends, and was generous and magnanimous almost to prodigality. His own words, uttered in defense of the spirit of knighthood, are wonderfully appropriate to himself:

"He burned, a never-consumed offering, upon the altar of his country."