Quote#Love
Where was her bloom! These deadly and blood-suffused orbs but ill…
Quote byCharles Brockden Brown · 1771–1810
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Wieland; or, the Transformation (1798).
English (original)
Where was her bloom! These deadly and blood-suffused orbs but ill resemble the azure and ecstatic tenderness of her eyes. The lucid stream that meandered over that bosom, the glow of love that was wont to sit upon that cheek, are much unlike these livid stains and this hideous deformity. Alas! These were the traces of agony; the grip of the assassin had been here!
— Charles Brockden Brown
More from Charles Brockden Brown
I used to suppose that certain evils could never befall a being in possession of a sound mind; that true virtue supplies us with energy which vice can never resist; that it was always in our power to obstruct, by his own death, the designs …
that he wages a perpetual war against the happiness of mankind, and sets his engines of destruction at work against every object that presents itself.
Bloodshed is the trade, and horror is the element of this man.
I feel little reluctance in complying with your request. You know not fully the cause of my sorrows. You are a stranger to the depth of my distresses. Hence your efforts at consolation must necessarily fail.
In the midst of my despair, I do not disdain to contribute what little I can for the benefit of mankind.
Purposes fraught with horror, that shun the light, and contemplate the pollution of innocence are here engendered, and fostered, and reared to maturity.