3. III.
“Between Herman and his sister, the soul and
person of Carl Werner were pretty evenly divided.
When not with one, he was with the other;
and when not separately with either, he was sure
to be with both. Though the tastes and tempers
of the two young men seemed greatly to differ to
the common eye, their sympathies ran strangely
together. Their sports and studies, though not
alike, seemed nevertheless to bring them together
always. Their habits were equally wandering,
and while the poetry of Carl made him musing,
meditative, and abstracted in his habits, it led him
the more to delight in those practical tendencies
in the mind of his companion, which suggested a
character directly the reverse. Herman, too, was
pleased with the fellowship of a thinking being,
and one who could furnish names and definitions
for all his own occasional and half-digested imaginings
and thoughts. They had neither of them
much system in their pursuits, and far less in their
studies. Books they read, not by selection, but as
they happened to fall into their hands; or, rather,
Carl would read them, and describe their character
and unfold their contents to his companion, who,
in his own experience, could most generally remember
adventures to correspond with and match
those which Carl related to him. In this manner
they became mutual dependants, and hence, some
of the secret of their intimacy. They would follow
— each — without much, or at best with a
momentary opposition — the moods and promptings
of the other — the momentary impulse being
the sufficient governor, — and to that they most
generally left the direction of studies and amusements
alike. The feeling which prompted the
one, if not exactly like that which filled the bosom
of the other, was seldom offensive to it: and we
need not wonder, thus situated and circumstanced,
if they grew together, to the almost complete exclusion
of all the village beside — the fair and gentle
Matilda alone being excepted.
