my childish and my manly ftudies. As foon as I was able to converse with the natives, I began to feel fome fatisfaction in their company: my awkward timidity was polifhed and emboldened; and I frequented, for the firft time, affemblies of men and women. The acquaintance of the Pavilliards prepared me by degrees for more elegant fociety. I was received with kindness and indulgence in the best families of Laufanne; and it was in one of thefe that I formed an intimate and lafting connexion with Mr. Deyverdun, a young man of an amiable temper and excellent understanding. In the arts of fencing and dancing fmall indeed was my proficiency; and fome months were idly wafted in the riding - fchool. My unfitness to bodily exercife reconciled me to a fedentary life, and the horse, the favorite of my countrymen, never contributed to the pleasures of my youth.

My obligations to the leffons of Mr. Pavilliard, gratitude will not fuffer me to forget: he was endowed with a clear head and a warm heart; his innate benevolence had affuaged the fpirit of the church; he was rational, because he was moderate in the courfe of his ftudies he had acquired a juft though fuperficial knowledge of moft branches of literature; by long practice, he was skilled in the arts of teaching; and he labored with affiduous patience to know the character, gain the affection, and open the mind of his English pupil". As foon as we began to underftand each other, he gently led me, from a blind and undiftinguishing love of reading, into the path of inftruction. I confented with pleasure that a portion of the morning hours fhould be confecrated to a plan

of modern history and geography, and to the critical perufal of the French and Latin claffics; and at each ftep I felt myself invigorated by the habits of appli. cation and method. His prudence repreffed and dif fembled fome youthful fallies; and as soon as I was confirmed in the habits of induftry and temperance, he gave the reins into my own hands. His favorable report of my behaviour and progrefs gradually obtained some latitude of action and expenfe; and he wifhed to alleviate the hardships of my lodging and entertainment. The principles of philofophy were affociated with the examples of tafte; and by a fingu lar chance, the book, as well as the man, which contributed the moft effectually to my education, has a stronger claim on my gratitude than on my admi. ration. Mr. De Croufaz, the adverfary of Bayle and Pope, is not diftinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almoft obliterated. But his philofophy had been formed in the school of Locke, his divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious life, feveral generations of pupils were taught to think, and even to write; his leffons rescued the academy of Lausanne, from Calviniftic prejudice; and he had the rare merit of diffufing a more liberal fpirit among the clergy and people of the Pays de Vaud. His fyftem of logic, which in the laft editions has fwelled to fix tedious and prolix volumes, may be praised as a clear and methodical abridgment of the art of reafoning, from our fimple ideas to the most complex operations of the human understanding. This fyftem I ftudied,

:

and meditated, and abstracted, till I have obtained the free command of an univerfal inftrument, which 1 foon prefumed to exercife on my catholic opinions. Pavilliard was not undmindful that his firft task, his most important duty, was to reclaim me from the errors of popery. The intermixture of fects has rendered the Swifs clergy acute and learned on the topics of controverfy; and I have fome of his letters in which he celebrates the dexterity of his attack, and my gradual conceffions, after a firm and well managed defence ". I was willing, and I am now willing, to allow him a handsome share of the honor of my converfion yet I must obferve, that it was principally effected by my private reflections; and L ftill remember my folitary transport at the discovery of a philofophical argument against the doctrine of tranfubftantiation: that the text of fcripture, which feems to inculcate the real prefence, is attested only by a fingle fenfe our fight; while the real prefence itself is difproved by three of our fenfes the fight, the touch, and the tafte. The various articles of the Romish creed disappeared like a dream; and after a full conviction, on Chriftmas-day 1754, I received the facrament in the church of Laufanne. It was here that I fufpended my religious inquiries, acquiefcing with implicit belief in the tenets and myfteries, which are adopted by the general confent of catholics and proteftants "2.

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Such, from my arrival at Laufanne, during the firft eighteen or twenty months (July 1753-March 1755), were my ufeful ftudies, the foundation of all my future improvements. But every man who

rifes above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the fecond, more perfonal and important, from himself. He will not, like the fanatics of the laft age, define the moment of grace; but he cannot forget the era of his life, in which his mind has expanded to its proper form and dimenfions. My worthy tutor had the good fenfe and modefty to difcern how far he could be ufeful as foon as he felt that I advanced beyond his speed and measure, he wifely left me to my genius; and the hours of leffon were foon loft in the voluntary labor of the whole morning, and fometimes of the whole day. The defire of prolonging my time, gradually confirmed the falutary habit of early rifing; to which I have always adhered, with fome regard to feafons and fituations: but it is happy for my eyes and my health, that my temperate ardor has never been feduced to trefpafs on the hours of the night. During the laft three years of my refidence at Laufanne, I may affume the merit of ferious and folid application; but I am tempted to distinguish the last eight months of the year 1755, as the period of the most extraordinary diligence and rapid progrefs". In my French and Latin translations I adopted an excellent method, which, from my own fuccefs, I would recommend to the imitation of ftudents. I chose some claffic writer, fuch as Cicero'and Vertot, the most approved for purity and elegance of style. I tranflated, for inftance, an epistle of Cicero into French; and after throwing it afide, till the words and phrases were obliterated from my memory, I retranflated my French into fuch Latin as I could

find; and then compared each fentence of my imper fect verfion, with the eafe, the grace, the propriety of the Roman orator. A fimilar experiment was made on feveral pages of the Revolutions of Vertot; I turned them into Latin, returned them after a fufficient interval into my own French, and again fcrutinized the refemblance or diffimilitude of the copy and the original. By degrees I was lefs afhamed, by degrees I was more fatisfied with myfelf; and I perfevered in the practice of thefe double tranflations, which filled feveral books, till I had acquired the knowledge of both idioms, and the command at least of a correct ftyle. This ufeful exercife of writing was accompanied and fucceeded by the more pleasing occupation of reading the beft authors. The perusal of the Roman claffics was at once my exercise and reward. Dr. Middleton's History, which I then appreciated above its true value, naturally directed me to the writings of Cicero. The most perfect editions, that of Olivet which may adorn the shelves of the rich, that of Ernefti, which should lie on the table of the learned, were not in my power. For the familiar epiftles I used the text and English commentary of Bishop Rofs: but my general edition was that of Verburgius, published at Amfterdam in two large volumes in folio, with an indifferent choice of various notes. I read, with application and pleasure, all the epiftles, all the orations, and the most important treatifes of rhetoric and philofophy; and as I read, I applauded the obfervation of Quintilian, that every student may judge of his own proficiency, by the fatisfaction which he receives from the Roman