Self-love may be
the centre around which human affections move, for
whatever motive conduces to self-gratification may be
resolved into self-love, yet, some of these affections
are in their nature so refined that, though we cannot
deny their origin, they almost deserve the name of
virtue: of this species was that of Adeline."
It is characteristic of Mrs. Radcliffe's tendency to overlook the
obvious in searching for the subtle, that the girl who feels
these recondite emotions expresses slight embarrassment when
unceremoniously flung on the protection of strangers. Emily, in
_The Mysteries of Udolpho_, possesses the same protective armour
as Adeline. When she is abused by Montoni, "Her heart swelled
with the consciousness of having deserved praise instead of
censure, and was proudly silent"; or again, in _The Italian_,
"Ellena was the more satisfied with herself because she
had never for an instant forgotten her dignity so far
as to degenerate into the vehemence of passion or to
falter with the weakness of fear."
Her father, M. St. Aubert, on his deathbed, bids Emily beware of
"priding herself on the gracefulness of sensibility."
Fortunately the heroine is merely a figurehead in _The Mysteries
of Udolpho_ (1794).
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