It was his nature to be communicative; he liked to open to a mind unacquainted with the world glimpses of its scenes and ways (I do not mean its corrupt scenes and wicked ways, but such as derived their interest from the great scale on which they were acted, the strange novelty by which they were characterised); and I had a keen delight in receiving the new ideas he offered, in imagining the new pictures he portrayed, and following him in thought through the new regions he disclosed, never startled or troubled by one noxious allusion.
Non mi metteva sotto gli occhi atti cattivi o corrotti, ma mi parlava di cose che avevano per me molto interesse, perché si svolgevano su larghissima scala ed erano narrate con strana originalità. Ero felice quando m'iniziava a idee nuove, rivelava al mio spirito regioni sconosciute.