And yet to say that he was simply a doctrinaire would be a false description; for the pure doctrinaire rejoices always in an internal contentment, and Albert was very far from doing that.

There was something that he wanted and that he could never get.

What was it?
Some absolute, some ineffable sympathy?
Some extraordinary, some sublime success?
Possibly, it was a mixture of both.

To dominate and to be understood! To conquer, by the same triumphant influence, the submission and the appreciation of men--that would be worth while indeed! But, to such imaginations, he saw too clearly how faint were the responses of his actual environment.

Who was there who appreciated him, really and truly?
Who COULD appreciate him in England?
And, if the gentle virtue of an inward excellence availed so little, could he expect more from the hard ways of skill and force?
The terrible land of his exile loomed before him a frigid, an impregnable mass.