Chapter 2
We were brought up together; there was not quite a year
difference in our ages. I need not say that we were strangers to
any species of disunion or dispute. Harmony was the soul of our
companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsisted in our
characters drew us nearer together. Elizabeth was of a calmer and
more concentrated disposition; but, with all my ardour, I was
capable of a more intense application and was more deeply smitten
with the thirst for knowledge. She busied herself with following
the aerial creations of the poets; and in the majestic and wondrous
scenes which surrounded our Swiss home—the sublime shapes of the
mountains, the changes of the seasons, tempest and calm, the
silence of winter, and the life and turbulence of our Alpine
summers—sh
