Such, at any rate, was Dorian Gray’s opinion.  He used to wonder at the shallow psychology of those who conceive the Ego in man as a thing simple, permanent, reliable, and of one essence.  To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose very flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead.  He loved to stroll through the gaunt cold picture-gallery of his country-house and look at the various portraits of those whose blood flowed in his veins.  Here was Philip Herbert, described by Francis Osborne, in his “Memoires on the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James,” as one who was “caressed by the court for his handsome face, which kept him not long company.”  Was it young Herbert’s life that he sometimes led?  Had some strange poisonous germ crept from body to body till it had reached his own?  Was it some dim sense of that ruined grace that had made him so suddenly, and almost without cause, give utterance, in Basil Hallward’s studio, to that mad prayer that had so changed his life?  Here, in gold-embroidered red doublet, jewelled surcoat, and gilt-edged ruff and wrist-bands, stood Sir Anthony Sherard, with his silver-and-black armor piled at his feet.  What had this man’s legacy been?  Had the lover of Giovanna of Naples bequeathed him some inheritance of sin and shame?  Were his own actions merely the dreams that the dead man had not dared to realize?  Here, from the fading canvas, smiled Lady Elizabeth Devereux, in her gauze hood, pearl stomacher, and pink slashed sleeves.  A flower was in her right hand, and her left clasped an enamelled collar of white and damask roses.  On a table by her side lay a mandolin and an apple.  There were large green rosettes upon her little pointed shoes.  He knew her life, and the strange stories that were told about her lovers.  Had he something of her temperament in him?  Those oval heavy-lidded eyes seemed to look curiously at him.  What of George Willoughby, with his powdered hair and fantastic patches?  How evil he looked!  The face was saturnine and swarthy, and the sensual lips seemed to be twisted with disdain.  Delicate lace ruffles fell over the lean yellow hands that were so overladen with rings.  He had been a macaroni of the eighteenth century, and the friend, in his youth, of Lord Ferrars.  What of the second Lord Sherard, the companion of the Prince Regent in his wildest days, and one of the witnesses at the secret marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert?  How proud and handsome he was, with his chestnut curls and insolent pose!  What passions had he bequeathed?  The world had looked upon him as infamous.  He had led the orgies at Carlton House.  The star of the Garter glittered upon his breast.  Beside him hung the portrait of his wife, a pallid, thin-lipped woman in black.  Her blood, also, stirred within him.  How curious it all seemed!