The powers of a man are never annihilated; if dormant in one direction, they will be active in another; and thus Bressant's passions, naturally deep and violent, being denied legitimate outlet, had given vigor, endurance, and heat of purpose, to the prosecution of his intellectual exercises.

But, as soon as these elements of his nature found their proper channels, they rushed onward with far more dash and fervor than if they had never been dammed or deflected.
The combined effect upon the young man of the companionship of a beautiful woman and his own broken bones, had been to make him feel and ponder on the nature of her power over him.

The name of love was of course familiar to him, but he could hardly as yet, perhaps, grasp the full significance of the sentiment.

Like other forms of knowledge, it must be approached by natural gradations.

Here, if nowhere else, Bressant's life of purely intellectual activity was a disadvantage.