The moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
What does this "as of" mean here? I would need a sentence structure explanation.
The moon shone on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
This is a complicated sentence but we can remove a few of the clauses in order to get at "as of" more directly:
The moon shone on his face as he spoke [and] it seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
It seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
It seemed to breathe such a kindness of disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
Whether we can trim out "yet with something high too" is debatable so we'll leave it in. "It" in this sentence could be either "the moon" or "his face" but you would need more context from the story to know exactly which it was. Fortunately, we don't need these details to understand "as of".
Rewording and rearranging lets us avoid the commas:
It seemed to breathe a [disposition that was kind], yet with something high too, as of a well-founded self-content.
It seemed to breathe a disposition that was kind [and was with something high], as of a well-founded self-content.
It seemed to breathe a disposition that was kind and was with something high, as of a well-founded self-content.
Therefore, "as of" means either (1) "similar to" or (2) "like it was coming from":
It seemed to breathe a disposition that was kind and was with something high, [similar to] a well-founded self-content.
It seemed to breathe a disposition that was kind and was with something high, [like it was coming from] a well-founded self-content.
Based on the little context we have been provided, I would guess that (2) is most likely and a possible rewording:
His disposition was kind, yet with something high, and suggested that he possessed a well-founded self-content.
Mr Jekyll and Dr Hyde. Good one. "As" always means "similar to," like," etc.
here, the object of "as" is "something high," which is modifying "it," which stands for his face on both occurrences. The something high here is indicated to have a quality quite like a well-founded self-content.
Now, the question is why "of"? As itself would give the same meaning, wouldn't it? It would not quite the meaning intended by Stevenson here. Here, "something high" not exactly like "well-founded self-content", but it has a quality similar to "well-founded self-content's quality. Well, it's difficult to put the meaning in words here.
One note: Modern grammar wants us to separate "it seemed to breath..." part as a separate sentence or after a semicolon.
Looking at dictionary.com we see two useful definitions:
- (used to indicate derivation, origin, or source): a man of good family; the plays of Shakespeare; a piece of cake.
- (used to indicate cause, motive, occasion, or reason): to die of hunger.
Whether you interpret of a well-founded self-content here as 2. or 3. - the essence remains the same:
The something high seems to originate in a well-founded self-content, or is caused by the same.
Of simply means coming from or caused by here.
So whatever that something high was that seemed to be in his face, it was as if it came from a well-founded self-content.
