And brilliance was the striking point in Maximilian. The Last of the
Knights, in spite of his many defects, was, by personal qualities,
and the hereditary influence of long-descended rank, verily a king of
men in aspect and demeanour, even when most careless and simple. He
was at this time a year or two past thirty, unusually tall, and with
a form at once majestic and full of vigour and activity; a noble,
fair, though sunburnt countenance; eyes of dark gray, almost black;
long fair hair, a keen aquiline nose, a lip only beginning to
lengthen to the characteristic Austrian feature, an expression always
lofty, sometimes dreamy, and yet at the same time full of acuteness
and humour. His abilities were of the highest order, his purposes,
especially at this period of his life, most noble and becoming in the
first prince of Christendom; and, if his life were a failure, and his
reputation unworthy of his endowments, the cause seems to have been
in great measure the bewilderment and confusion that unusual gifts
sometimes cause to their possessor, whose sight their conflicting
illumination dazzles so as to impair his steadiness of aim, while
their contending gleams light him into various directions, so that
one object is deserted for another ere its completion.
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