ørator. I tafted the beauties of language, I breathed the fpirit of freedom, and I imbibed from his precepts and examples the public and private fense of a man. Cicero in Latin, and Xenophon in Greek, are indeed the two ancients whom I would first propofe to a liberal scholar; not only for the merit of their style and fentiments, but for the admirable leffons, which may be applied almoft to every fituation of public and private life. Cicero's Fpiftles may in particular afford the models of every form of correfpondence, from the careless effufions of tendernefs and friendship, to the well-guarded declaration of difcreet and dignified refentment. After finishing this great author, a library of eloquence and reafon, I formed a more extenfive plan of review. ing the Latin claffics ", under the four divifions of, 1. hiftorians, 2. poets, 3, orators, and 4. philofophers, in a chronological feries, from the days of Plautus and Salluft, to the decline of the language and empire of Rome: and this plan, in the laft twenty-seven months of my refidence at Laufanne (January 1756- April 1758), I nearly accomplished. Nor was this review, however rapid, either hafty or fuperficial. I indulged myfelf in a fecond and even a third perufal of Terence, Virgil, Horace, Tacitus, &c. and ftudied to imbibe the fenfe and fpirit moft congenial to my own. I never fuffered a difficult or corrupt paffage to efcape, till I had viewed it in every light of which it was fufceptible: though often difappointed, I always confulted the moft learned or ingenious commentators, Torrentius and Dacier on Horace, Catrou and Servius on Virgil,

Lipfius on Tacitus, Meziriac on Ovid, &c.; and in the ardor of my inquiries, I embraced a large circle of historical and critical erudition. My abstracts of each book were made in the French language: my obfervations often branched into particular effays; and I can still read, without contempt, a differtation of eight folio pages on eight lines ( 287 -294) of the fourth Georgic of Virgil. Mr. Deyverdun, my friend, whofe name will be frequently repeated, had joined with equal zeal, though not with equal perfeverance, in the fame undertaking. To him every thought, every compofition, was inftantly communicated; with him I enjoyed the benefits of a free conversation on the topics of our common ftudies.

Bu it is fcarcely poffible for a mind endowed with any active curiofity to be long converfant with the Latin claffics, without aspiring to know the Greek originals, whom they celebrate as their mafters and of whom they fo warmly recommend the study and imitation,

Vos exemplaria Græca

Nocturnâ verfate manu, verfate diurnâ.

It was now that I regretted the early years which had been wafted in ficknefs or idleness, or mere idle reading; that I condemned the perverfe method of our schoolmafters, who, by firft teaching the mother-language, might defcend with fo much. eafe and perfpicuity to the origin and etymology of a derivative idiom. In the nineteenth year of my age I determined to fupply this defect; and the leffons of Pavilliard again contributed to fmooth the entrance of the way, the Greek

alphabet, the grammar, and the pronunciation according to the French accent. At my earneft request we prefumed to open the Iliad; and I had the pleasure of beholding, though darkly and through a glass, the true image of Homer, whom I had long fince admired in an English dress. After my tutor had left me to myself, I worked my way through about half the Iliad, and afterwards interpreted alone a large portion of Xenophon and Herodotus. But my ardor, deftitute of aid and emulation, was gradually cooled, and, from the barren task of fearching words in a lexicon, I withdrew to the free and familiar conversation of Virgil and Tacitus. Yet in my refidence at Lausanne I had laid a folid foundation, which enabled me, in a more. propitious season, to profecute the study of Grecian literature.

From a blind idea of the usefulness of fuch ab. ftract fcience, my father had been defirous, and even preffing, that I fhould devote fome time to the mathematics "; nor could I refuse to comply with fo reasonable a wifh. During two winters I* attended the private lectures of Monfieur de Traytorrens, who explained the elements of algebra and geometry, as far as the conic fections of the Marquis de l'Hôpital, and appeared fatisfied with my diligence and improvement". But as my childish propensity for numbers and calculations was totally extinct, I was content to receive the paffive impreffion of my Profeffor's lectures, without any active exercise of my own powers. As foon as I understood the principles, I relinquifhed

for ever the purfuit of the mathematics; nor can I lament that I defifted, before my mind was hardened by the habit of rigid demonftration, fo deftructive of the finer feelings of moral evidence, which muft, how`ever, determine the actions and opinions of our lives. I liftened with more pleasure to the propofal of ftudying the law of nature and nations, which was taught in the academy of Lausanne by Mr. Vicat, a profeffor of fome learning and reputation. But, inftead of attending his public or private course, I preferred in my closet the leffons of his mafters, and my own reafon. Without being difgufted by Grotius or Puffendorf, I ftudied in their writings the duties of a man, the rights of a citizen, the theory of juftice (it is, alas! a theory) and the laws of peace and war, which have had fome influence on the practice of moderne Europe. My fatigues were alleviated by the good fenfe of their commentator Barbeyrac. Locke's Treatife of Government inftructed me in the knowledge of Whig principles, which are rather founded in reason than experience; but my delight was in the frequent perufal of Montefquieu, whofe energy of style, and boldness of hypothefis, were powerful to awaken and Rimulate the genius of the age. The logic of De Croufaz had prepared me to engage with his mafter Locke, and his antagonist Bayle; of whom the former may be used as a bridle, and the latter applied as a fpur, to the cu riofity of a young philofopher. According to the nature of their respective works, the fchools of argument and objection, I carefully went through

the Effay on Human Understanding, and occafionally confulted the moft intereftirg articles of the Philofophic Dictionary. In the infancy of my reafon I turned over, as an idle amufement, the most serious and important treatife: in its maturity, the most trifling performance could exercife my taste or judgment and more than once I have been led by a novel into a deep and inftructive train of thinking. But I cannot forbear to men tion three particular books, fince they may have remotely contributed to form the hiftorian of the Roman empire. 1. From the Provincial Letters of Pafcal, which almoft every year I have perufed with new pleafure, I learned to manage the weapon of grave and temperate irony, even on fubjects of ecclefiaftical folemnity. 2. The Life of Julian, by the Abbé de la Bleterie, first introduced me to the man and the times; and I fhould be glad to recover my firft effay on the truth of the miracle which stopped the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerufalem. 3. In Giannone's Civil History of Naples, I obferved with a critical eye the progrefs and abuse of facerdotal power, and the revolutions of Italy in the darker ages. This various reading which I now conducted with difcretion, was digefted, according to the precept and model of Mr. Locke, into a large common-place book; a practice, however, which I do not ftrenuoufly recommend. The action of the pen will doubtlefs imprint an idea on the mind as well as on the paper: but I much question whether the benefits of this laborious method are adequate to the wafte of time;