The young man may have been mistaken in thinking that Susan would die if he left her, and may have done more than his duty in sacrificing himself; but if so, it was the mistake of a generous youth, who estimated the depth of another's feelings by his own.

He measured the depth of his own rather by what he felt they might be, than by that of any abysses they had yet sounded.
Clement was called a "genius" by those who knew him, and was consequently in danger of being spoiled early.

The risk is great enough anywhere, but greatest in a new country, where there is an almost universal want of fixed standards of excellence.
He was by nature an artist; a shaper with the pencil or the chisel, a planner, a contriver capable of turning his hand to almost any work of eye and hand.

It would not have been strange if he thought he could do everything, having gifts which were capable of various application,--and being an American citizen.

But though he was a good draughtsman, and had made some reliefs and modelled some figures, he called himself only an architect.