He had been told that he had a
heart, but no one had spoken of how it was to be directed to good. He
had been told that he must resist his own passions, but no one had
shown him what arms to make use of in this moral warfare. He had been
told to love virtue and to hate vice, but no one had furnished him
with a criterion for distinguishing true virtue from its counterfeit.
The temper of Edoardo was ardent and hasty, but flexible and weak.
Nature had made him good, but society could make him very bad. He was
like a ship without a good pilot--one to become good or bad according
to circumstances. Enthusiastic, easily impressed by example, he would
be most virtuous if his first steps had moved among the virtuous; if
among the wicked, he would rush to perdition.
A letter of recommendation to the father of Sophia, who had formerly
had some commercial dealings with the Valperghi, introduced him into
the house. His timidity made him prefer that family to richer ones
with which he was also acquainted, and amongst whom he could have
found youths, amusements, and habits similar to those he had left
behind in Venice.
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